H' 


liHli 


MANUAL  OF  MENTAL  AND  PHYSICAL  TESTS 
Fart  II:  Complex  Processes 


[SECOND  EDITION    REVISED  AND  ENLARGED] 

MANUAL  OF 

MENTAL  AND  PHYSICAL 

TESTS 

In   Two  Fart- 
Part  II :  Complex  Processes 

A  BOOK  OF  DIRECTIONS 
COMPILED  WITH  SPECIAL  REFERENCE  TO  THE  EXPERIMENTAL  STUD1 

OF  SCHOOL  CHILDREN   IN    1HL  LABORATORY 
oR  CLASSROOM 


BY 

GUY  MONTROSE  WHIPPLE,  PH.D. 

ASSOCIATE    PROFESSOR    01    EDUCATION,    i   MVIKSllN    OF    ILLINOIS 

u    1  link    Ol         I    "i   1 1.1.    ro   HIGH  SCHOOL  OBSERVATION,         QUES1 
ORNBRAL    AND    EDUCATIONAL    PSYCHO! 

SI  MAV     IN     SI   HOOl       KM. I!    M    " 


BALTIMORE,  U.  S.  A 
WARWICK  &  YORK,  Inc 

1915 


Copyright,  1915 

BV 

Warwick  &  York.  Inc. 


I  IIZ\ 

Z  > 

>.  PREFACE  TO  PART   II 

C3 
CD 

-J 

g  It  ii  be  not  thought  bad  form  to  preface  a  volume  with  au 
>2  apology,  l  should  like  to  ;isk  the  indulgeuce  of  those  of  m\ 
readers  who  have  been  so  complimentary  as  to  express  to  1 1 1 « - 
publishers  and  to  me  their  irritation  a1  iliis  delaj  of  two  years 
or  more  in  the  completion  of  the  revised  second  edition  of  the 
\fanual.  The  truth  is,  thai  the  unexpected  exhaustion  of  the 
first  edition  of  the  book  found  me  quite  unprepared  to  rewrite 

CT»  ill 

££ihc  text  ;ii  short  notice,  and  that  tin-  whole  subject  of  mental 
tests  had  meanwhile  so  expanded  as  to  present  a  task  of  do 
small  magnitude  to  one  who  would  seek  to  deal  a1  all  adequately 

o  with  tin*  material  thai  had  become  available. 

Iii  this  volume,  then,  as  in  Part  I.  the  text  has  undergone 
extensive  revision  and  alteration.  In  a  number  of  instances 
the  addition  of  new  materials,  of  new  methods  and  of  new  re 
<nlis  has  been  sufficient  to  alter  the  complexion  of  the  tests  sn 
decidedly  as  t<>  amount   to  entirely  new    presentations  of  the 

ectopics  with   which   thev  deal.     The   Kent  Rosanoff  Test   and   the 

HI 

£  Analogies  Test  are  introduced  as  totally  new    material. 

x      on  the  other  hand.   I  have  been  compelled,  reluctantly,  for 

reasons  set    forth  in   the  text,  m  omit   consideration  <>r  serial 
o 
graded  tests  (Chapter  XIIli.    This  omission  I  hope  to  repair 

later  on  i»\   publishing  a  supplementary   volume  dealing  with 

Systems  Of  Tests  in  general.     T<»   incorporate   this  material   in 
the  present    volume  would   increase    its  size   iinduh    and   d«d;i\ 

its  appearance  beyond  reasonable  limits  of  time. 

In  addition  to  the  acknowledgments  for  assistance  made  in 
the  preface  to  Pari  I.  my  thanks  are  extended  to  .Miss  Margarel 
Cobb  and  Dr.  11.  6.  Etugg  for  valuable  assistance  in  the  reading 
of   proof.     Other   special   acknowledgments    I    have   tried    to 

make  in  the  course  of  lhe  text. 


0.    M.   W 


University  of  Illinois.   Ipril,  1915. 


328488 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS 


Chapter  VIII.     Tests  of  Description    \m>  Repobi 

Test  31.— Description  of  an  Object [876]     1" 

Teat  82.— Fidelity  of  Report :    .1  uaaage  Teat [3831     1° 

Chapter  IX.  Tests  of  Association,  Learning,  and  Mmumiv 

Test  33. — Uncontrolled  Association — Continuous  Method [-410]     4t 

Test  33A. — Uncontrolled      Association — Discrete      Method      (Kent- 

Rosanoff   Test) [419] 

'Jest  3Jf. — Controlled   Association — Logical    Relations [437]     71 

Test  S4A.— Analogies [  456 1     89 

Test  35. — Controlled  Association:     Computation [-4(30]     94 

Test  36.— Mirror-Drawing [485]   118 

Test  37.— Substitution [499]  133 

Test  38. — Memory  for  Serial  Impressions:    'Rote'  Memory. ...  [515]  148 

Test  30. — Memory  for  Ideas:     'Logical'  Memory [570]  204 

Chapter  X.     Tests  of  Suggestibility 

Test  40. — Suggestion  by  the  Size- Weight  Illusion [589]   223 

Test  41. — Suggestion  by  Progressive  Weights [597]  231 

Teat  42. — Suggestion  by  Progressive  Lines [601]  235 

Test  43. — Suggestion  of  Line-Lengths  by  Personal  Influence..  .[607]  241 

Teat  44.— Suggestion  by  Illusion  of  Warmth.  I [611]  245 

.   Chapter  XI.    Tests  of  Imagination  and  Intention 

Test  45.— Ink-Blots [619]  253 

Test  46.— Linguistic  Invention [625]  258 

Test  41.— Word-Building [039]  27.1 

Test  48.— Ebbinghaus'    Completion-Method [G48]  282 

Test  49.— Interpretation  of  Fables [ 665]  298 

Chapter  XII.    Tests  of  Intellectual  Eqtjtpmi  m 

Test  50.— Size  of  Vocabulary [673]  307 

Teat  51.-  -Range  of  information [682]  31*; 

Chapter  XII. 
Note  on  Serial  Graded  Tests  for  Developmental  Diagnosis.       .[689]  823 


Appendix    I.      Formulas    for   Converting    Measures    (English    and 

Metric    Systems) [691]  325 

Appendix  II.     List  of  Abbreviations [691 J  325 

Appendix  III.     List  of  Materials  for  Part  II [693]  327 

Index  of  Names [695]  829 

Index  of  Subjects [099]  333 


[NDEX    OF   I 'Hii  l:i  B 
no.  PAfli 

04.    The  Mirror-Drawing  Tesl I  188]   122 

65.    The  Effect  <>c  Practise  During  six  Trials  upon   the  Average 

Speed  of  Mirror-Drawing  (From  roakum  and  Galfee) .-[492]   12G 

60.    The    Effect    of    Long    Practise   upon    Mirror-Drawing    (From 

Starch) [493]    127 

"17.  Percentiles  for  the  Substitution  Index  for  Cincinnati  Working 
Children  14  and  15  Years  Old— Sheel  1  (After  Woolley  and 
Fischer) [510]    1 4 1 

08.  Percentiles  for  the  Substitution  Index  for  Cincinnati  Working 
Children  14  and  15  rears  Old — Sheet  4  (Alter  Woolley  and 
Fischer) [511]   145 

69.  Effect  of  Practise  Periods  of  Different  Lengths  upon  Perform- 

ance in  the  Substitution  Test    (From  Starch) [512]   l  W 

70.  Jastrow's  Memory  Apparatus [525]   159 

71.  Development  of  Memory  for  Digits   (From  Smedley) ....  [543]   177 
7-J.     Percentiles   of   Memory    for   Letter   Squares,   Boys      (Ander- 
son)  to4C]    L80 

7:;.     Percentiles  of   Memorj    for   Letter   Squares,    <;iiis      (Ander- 

Bon) '. [547]    LSI 

74.    Memory  Capacity  of  12-Year-Old  Pupils,  by  Grades    (From 

Smedley) [503]  197 

7.".    Size- Weight  Illusion  in  the  Feeble-Minded   (Doll) [595]  229 

70.     Guidi's    Apparatus    for    the    Warmth    Illusion     (Modified    by 

Whipple) [616]   250 

77.  Percentiles  of  Word  Building  for  Boys   (Anderson) [»'>42]  27"'. 

78.  Percentiles  of  Word  Building  for  Girls   (Anderson) [<■>!•"•]  277 

7!».     Percentiles  for  Completion  Test  No.  4.  Ages  14  to  17  Combined 

(Fraser) [660]  294 


INDEX    TO    TABLES 

l.uai  PASS 

.",<>.    Comparative   Accuracy   of   Bworn    and    Unsworn   Statements 

(Stern  and  Borst) [897]  81 

51.  Effect  of  Time-Interval  on  Report    (Dallenbach) [401]  86 

52.  Dependence  of  Report  on  its  Form   I  Stern  and  Borst  i . . . .  [-102]  86 

53.  Effect  of  Practia i  Coefficients  of  Report    (Borst) [405]  89 

54.  Words    Written     In    Three    Minutes    by     Normal    children 

(Pyle) [418]     t: 

55.  Words  Uttered  In  Three  Minutes  by  Epileptics   ( Wallln) .  [414]     18 

56.  Distribution  of  Terms  in  'Uncontrolled'  Association  (Jastrow, 

Nevers,  calkins.   Manchester) [417]     51 

57.  [nfluences    that    Affect    'Uncontrolled'    Series    of    Words    or 

Drawings     <  Flournoy) [418]     52 

58.  Average  Distributions  for  the  Kent  Rosanoff  Test    (Compiled 

from  Eastman,  Kent,  Rosanoff  and  Strong) [428]     <">(> 

."lit.     Dependence  of  Distribution  In  the  Kent-Rosanoff  Test  on  Age 

(Isabel  Rosanoff  and  A.  J.  Rosanoff) [427]     61 

00.     Individual   Responses   of  children   and   Adults  In   the   Kent 

Rosanoff  Test   (Isabel  Rosanoff  and  A.  J.  Rosanoff )... [428]     62 

61.  Types  of  Associative  Response  in  Normal  and  Feeble-Minded 

Children     (Otis) [429]     63 

62.  Distribution    of    Responses    as    Conditioned    by    Intelligence 

(Isabel  Rosanoff  and  A.  J.  Rosanoff) [432]     66 

63.  Performance  in  the  Part-Whole  Test   (Norsworthy) [441]     75 

64.  Correct    Associates    Written     in    00    Sec.     Part-Whole    Test 

(Pyle) [441]     75 

65.  Performance  in  the  Genus-Species  Test    (Norsworthy)... [444]    78 

66.  Correct    Associates    Written    In    60    Sec.    Genus-Species    Test 

(Pyle) [444]     78 

07.    Correct     Associates     Written     in    60     Sec.    Opposltes    Test 

(Pyle) [448]     B2 

68.  Correct  Associates  of  a   Possible  20.    Opposltes  Test    (Nors- 

worthy)  [1  !'.•]  *:: 

69.  Correct  Associates  and  Times.  Opposltes  Test   (Squire)..  [449]  S3 

70.  Errors  and  Times.   Opposites  Test    (Carpenter) [440]  S3 

71.  Speed  in  Sec.   for  Correct   Responses   In  the   Analogies  Test 

(Fraser) [458]    92 

72.  Average  Scores  of  29  Norma]  and  *'>  insane  Subjects  In  the  Addi- 

tion Test     (Specht  and  BIschoff) [474]   108 

73.  Efficiency  In  Addition:  Five  10-Minute  Periods  (Schulze)  .  [477]  HI 

74.  Efficiency  in  Addition  and  Multiplication  within  an  Hour    (Bur- 

gerstein) [47S]  112 

75.  Additions  per  Pupil,  with  and  without  a  Rest-Pause    (Burger- 

stein-Schulze) [470]   1 13 

76.  Efficiency       in      Computation      within      a       School       Session 

(Laser) [4S0]  114 

5 


fj  MANUAL  OF   MENTAL  AND  PHYSICAL  TESTS 

TABLE  PAGE 

'77.     Effect  of  Practise  on  Speed  in  Mirror-Drawing.    College  Stu- 
dents   (Whipple) '. .  [489]  123 

78.     Times,  in  Sec,  for  Mirror-Drawing  (Yoakum  and  Calfee) .  [490]  124 
70.     Times,  in  Sec,  Used  in  the  Star  Test  by  36  College  Girls,  16 
College     Maids     and     69     Bedford     Reformatory     Women 
( Weidensall) [495]  129 

80.  Scores  in  the  Star  Test  for  Three  Groups  of  Bedford  Reforma- 

tory Women    (Weidensall) [495]  120 

81.  Substitution   Test.      Number   of    Symbols   Written.      Form   B. 

Group  Method    (Whipple) [505]  139 

82.  Substitution   Test.     Speed   in   Seconds.    Form    B.     Individual 

Method    (Whipple) [505]  139 

83.  Correct    Substitutions    Made    in   60    Sec.    Digit-Symbol    Test 

(Pyle) [505]  139 

84.  Correct    Substitutions    Made    in    60    Sec    Symbol-Digit    Test 

(Pyle) [506]  140 

85.  Substitution    Index,    in    Sec,    Cincinnati     Working    Children 

(Woolley  and  Fischer) [507]  141 

86.  Average  Number  of  Substitutions  Made  by  37  White  and  30  Ne- 

gro Girls  in  a  Pennsylvania  Reformatory    (Baldwin) .  .  [507]  141 

87.  Substitution  Test.    Distribution  of  Gains  and  Losses  in  Speed 

(Whipple) [509]  143 

88.  Substitution  Test.    Bright  and  Dull  Boys.    Form  B.   Individual 

Method    ( Whipple) [513]   147 

80.     Differences,  in  Sec,  Index  of  Substitution,  Form  C,  between 

Bedford  Hills  Reformatory  Women  and  Cincinnati  Working 

Girls  14  and  15  Years  Old   (After  Weidensall) [515]  14! » 

90.     Use  of  the   'Footrule'   Method  in   Scoring  the   Memory  Test 

(Spearman). [527]  161 

01.     Norms  of  Memory  Span   for   Digits,    as   Conditioned  by  Age 

(Smedley) [537]  171 

92.     Development  of  Memory  for  Digits    (Smedley) [538]  172 

03.  Dependence   of    Memory    Span    for   Auditory    Digits   on    Age 

(Jacobs) [538]  172 

04.  Dependence  of  Memory  for  Auditory  Digits  on  Age   (Ebbing- 

haus) [538]   172 

95.  Memory  for  Letter  Squares,  in  Relation  to  Age  and  Practise 

(Winch) [539]  173 

96.  Memory   for   Letter    Squares,    Score   for   10    Trials     (Ander- 

son)  [539]  173 

'J7.     Memory   for  Concrete   Words,   in    Relation   to   Age  and    Sex 

(Pyle) [539]  173 

98.     Memory   for   Abstract   Words,    in   Relation   to   Age   and   Sex 

(Pyle) T540]  174 


INDEX     i"    i  M'l •!> 


•■•  AGI- 


TABLE 

•>9.    Average   Number   of   Bentences   Correctly    Repeated     (After 

Squire  ami  Carpenter) [540]  1T4 

KM).  Memory  for  Pictures  of  Objects  (After  Squire-  and  Car- 
penter)  [540]  i" I 

ioi      Set  Efficiency  of  Various  Memories,  In  Relation  to  Age   (Pohl- 

mann)... [542]  17'" 

L02  Distribution  of  Boys'  Scores  in  Letter  Squares  (After  Ander- 
son)  [548]   L82 

103  Distributi< f  Girls'  Scores  in  Letter  Squares  (After  Ander- 
son)  [549]   ,v:; 

104.  Percentage   of    Accuracy    In    Memory    for   -J  Place    Numbers 

(Schuyten). [550]   iv> 

105.  Ses  Differences  In  Memory  Span  tor  Digits  In  College  Fresh 

men  (Wissler) [550]   184 

loo.    Memory  for  9-Term  Series  of  Differenl  Kinds   (Lobsien).  .[553]  187 

107.  Memory    for    Related    and    tor    Unrelated     Words      (Nors- 

vrorthy) [554]   'ss 

108.  Dependence  of   Memory   upon  Form   of   Presentation     (Pohl- 

mann) l",,;1  l90 

109.  Relation    of   Memory    tor    Auditory    Digits    and    intelliger. 

(Ebbinghaus) [500]   194 

110.  Relation     of     Memory     tor     Digits     and     School     Standing 

(Smedley) [562]  198 

111.  Memory  Span  tor  Digits  In  the  Feeble-Minded  (Johnson)  .[564]   198 

112.  Comparative  Memory  Capacity  of  Normal  and  Feeble-Minded 

children    i  Norsworthy) [564]   198 

L13.     Correlations  with  Amalgamated  Results  of  Immediate  Memory 

Tests    (After  Burt) [566]  200 

114.     Correlations  between  Memory  Tests  and  Other  Tests    (After 

Wyatt) [568]  200 

115      Recall  of  Different   Members  Of  a  7-Term   Series    (Binet  and 

Henri) [566]  20 

mh.     Marble  Statue  Test,  Scores  i.\  Age  and  Sex    (Pyle) [577]  -l i 

117.     Dutch    Homestead    Test.      Words    Written    and    Underlined 

(Whipple) [577]  211 

us.    Cicero      Test.        Distribution      of      36      College      Students 

(Whipple) [577]  -11 

119.  Average   Percentage  of  Loss   In  Third    Reproduction     (Hen- 

derson)  [578]  212 

120.  Story  of  The  Fire,   s.-orcs  for  Epileptics  by  Mental  Age   I  After 

Wallin) [583]  217 

121.  Force  of  Suggestion    (Gilbert) [593]  227 

122.  Reactions  of  Feeble-Minded  Children  to  the  Size-Weight  Illu- 

sion (Doll) 


8  MANUAL    OF    MENTAL    AND    PHYSICAL    TESTS 

TABLE  PAGE 

123.  The  Progressive- Weight  Suggestion.   24  Cases    (Binet) .  .  [GOO]  234 

124.  Averages      for      Progressive- Weight      Suggestion      by      Age 

(Giroud) [001]  235 

125.  Percentage  of  'Yields'  to  Contradictory  Suggestion    (Binet  and 

I  lenri) [610]  244 

i -♦"»-     Suggestibility  to  Warmth.    Resistance-Coil  Method   (Okabeand 

Whipple) [617]  251 

127.  Suggestibility    to    Warmth    as    Related    to    Age.     187    Cases 

(Guidi) [618]  252 

128.  Average    Number   of   'Names'   Given   to  Ink-Blots     (Kirkpat- 

rick) [624]  258 

129.  Scores  of  Seven  Adults  in  Developing  Sentences  (Sharp) .  [629]  263 

130.  Averages  by  Age  and  Sex,  aeobmt-Test  (After  Anderson  and 

Pyle) [644]  278 

131.  Averages  by  Age  and   Sex,  aeirlp-Test    (After  Anderson  and 

Pyle) [645]  279 

132.  Completion    Text    No.    4.      15-Minute    Limit     (Terman     and 

Childs) [656]  290 

133.  Completion  Text  No.  4.     10-Minute  Limit.     Results  for  Boys 

(Fraser) [657]  291 

134.  Completion  Text  No.  4.     10-Minute  Limit.     Results  for  Girls 

(Fraser) [658]  292 

135.  Completion  Text  No.  4.  15-Minute  Limit.  Results  for  'Citizens' 

of  the  George  Junior  Republic  (Whipple  and  Fraser) . .  [663]  297 

136.  Distribution  by  Percentages  in  Interpretation  of  Fables  (Ter- 

man and  Childs) [670]  304 

137.  Norms    for    Interpretation    of    Four    Fables     (Terman    and 

Childs) [671]  305 

138.  Average  Vocabulary  in  Relation  to  Scholastic  Status   (Kirk- 

patrick) [678]  312 

139.  Relation   of    Vocabulary    to    Age:     Method    of    Terman    and 

Childs [678]  312 

140.  Vocabularies  of  20  College  Students:   Terman  and  Childs'  List 

(Whipple) [679]  313 

141.  Distribution  of  Corrected  Vocabulary  Index,  Seventy  College 

Students    ( Whipple) [679]  313 

142.  Overestimation  of  the  Vocabulary  Index.    Seventy  College  Stu- 

dents   (Whipple) [680]  314 

143.  Dependence   of   Range   of   Information   on    Academic   Status 

(Whipple) [684]  318 

144.  Dependence   of   Range   of    Information    on    Academic    Status 

(Smith) [685]  319 

145.  Dependence  of  Range  of  Information  on  Sex.     (Whipple  and 

Smith) [685]  319 


PART    II 

I  '<  >MPLEX    PROCESSES 

CHAPTER    VIII 

Tests  of  Description  and  Report 

The  two  tests  which  are  described  in  this  chapter  have  certain 
features  in  common  which  demarcate  them,  on  the  one  hand 
from  the  tests  of  perception  and  attention  of  the  previous  chap- 
ter, and  on  the  other  hand  from  the  memory  tests  of  the  succeed- 
ing chapter,  though,  in  many  respects,  they  resemble  these  tests. 

The  essential  idea  in  both  of  the  present  tests  is  to  determine 
capacity,  not  merely  to  attend  and  observe,  or  to  recall  what  has 
been  observed,  but  to  put  the  results  of  this  observation  into 
linguistic  form.  If  the  observer  gives  his  account  of  the  experi- 
ence at  the  time  of  his  observation,  this  constitutes  description; 
if  at  some  time  subsequent,  to  his  observation,  this  constitutes 
report . 

It  is  evident  that  this  giving  of  an  account  of  an  experience, 
particularly  if  the  experience  be  somewhat  complicated  in  form, 
is  a  more  complex  psychical  process  than  those  under  discussion 
in  the  tests  of  attention  and  perception.  This  greater  coin 
plexity  makes  the  reduction  of  the  observer's  performance  i" 
exact  quantitative  terms  a  matter  of  greater  difficulty,  but,  on 
the  other  hand,  the  activity  called  forth  is  more  akin  to  that 
demanded  in  everyday  life,  and  it  is  for  this  reason  that  these 
tests  have  been  felt  to  possess  a  peculiar  value,  particularly  in 
(lie  study  of  individual  differences  in  mental  constitution  and 
.  mental  efficiency.  Again,  language  occupies  so  strikingly  promi- 
nent a  place  in  our  mental  economy  that  tests  which  seek  to 
bring  out  the  observer's  ability  to  cast  experience  into  linguistic 
form  are,  on  that  account,  well  worth  while.    This  is  partieu- 

[375]  9 


10    [376]  DESCRIPTION   AND   REPORT 

larly  the  case  in  the  second  form  of  test,  that  of  the  report, 
which,  in  connection  with  the  "psychology  of  testimony,"  has  of 
late  had  a  prominent  place  in  psychological  research. 

TEST  31 

Description  of  an  object. — The  description  test  first  came  into 
prominence  through  the  work  of  Binet,  who  urged  that  the  study 
of  individual  psychology  may  be  best  advanced  by  resort  to  the 
experimental  examination  of  complex,  rather  than  of  simple 
mental  processes,  and  who  considered  the  description  test  of 
special  value  in  this  connection.  Binet  made  preliminary  tests 
with  Henri  in  1893  (3),  and  worked  at  the  test  later  by  himself 
(1,  2).  His  method  has  been  followed,  though  not  in  exact  de 
tail,  by  LeClere  (7),  Sharp  (9),  Monroe  (8),  and  Cohn  and 
Dieffenbacher  (5). 

Materials. — Cigarette.  Cancelled  2-cent  postage  stamp. 
Lithograph,  entitled  "Hindoos." 

The  cancelled  stamp  was  used  by  Monroe,  the  cigarette  by  Binet.  The 
lithograph  is  substituted  for  the  different  pictures  that  have  been  used  by 
other  investigators  (Binet  and  Henri  used  Neuville's  "The  Last  Cart- 
ridge," Binet  a  picture  representing  Fontaine's  "Le  Laboreur  et  ses  En- 
fants,"  Miss  Sharp  "The  Golden  Wedding"  and  "The  Interrupted  Duel"), 
because  of  the  impossibility  of  securing  these  particular  pictures,  or  of  the 
diificulty  of  using  them  under  the  conditions  that  prevailed  in  the  original 
experiments  (Binet's  school  children  were  well  acquainted  with  the  fable 
from  Fontaine,  for  example). 

If  it  is  desired  to  extend  the  list  of  materials,  E  may  employ  other 
objects  used  by  Binet  (2),  such  as  a  box  of  matches,  a  penny,  a  leaf,  etc. 

For  group  tests,  there  should  be  at  least  one  picture  for  every  5  »S"s,  one 
cigarette  for  every  2  »S's,  and  a  stamp  for  each  8. 

For  group  tests,  it  would  be  desirable  to  secure  a  set  of  stamps  whose 
cancellation  marks  were  approximately  the  same.  The  stamps  should  be 
trimmed  off  in  such  a  manner  as  to  show  the  full  border  of  the  stamp  and 
a  narrow  margin  of  the  paper  upon  which  it  was  attached. 

The  lithograph  is  one  of  a  series  called  Leutemann's  Types  of  Nations, 
catalogued  by  E.  Steiger  &  Co.,  New  York.  It  may  be  purchased,  like  all 
other  material  cited  in  this  book,  of  C.  H.  Stoelting  Co.,  Chicago,  111. 

Method. —  (1)  For  the  picture-test,  supply  8  with  writing 
materials ;  place  the  lithograph  upright  before  him,  about  75  cm. 
distant.  Instruct  him :  "Write  a  description  of  this  picture  so 
that  one  who  had  never  seen  it  would  know  all  about  it."  Allow 
10  min. 


TEST  31:  DESCRIPTION  OF  AN  OBJECT      [377]  11 

(2)  For  the  cigarette-test,  give  the  following  instructions, 
and  no  others:  "I'm  going  to  put  on  this  table  before  you  B 
small  object.  I  shall  leave  it  there  under  your  eyes.  I  want  you 
to  write  a  description  of  it;  not  to  draw  it,  but  describe  it  in 
words.  You  will  have  about  5  niin.  Here  is  the  object."  If  8 
is  busy  at  the  end  <>r  the  allotted  time,  or  has  written  inn  a  tvw 
lines,  the  time  may  be  slightly  extended. 

(3)  For  the  stamp-test,  proceed  in  a  similar  manner,  Bave 
thai  S'b  are  nol  forbidden  t<>  draw  the  Btamp,  if  they  wish  to. 
The  instructions  may  run:    "Describe  this  postage  Btam 
thai  a  person  who  had  never  Been  one  would  know  all  about  it." 
Allow  10  min.,  or  more  if  needed. 

Variations  of  Method. — The  problem  of  assigning  an  appro 
priate  title  to  a  picture  or  of  asking  appropriate  questions  con- 
cerning  it  may  be  regarded  as  a  variation  of  the  description  test. 
For  suggestions  as  to  this  test  see  below,  under  Notes. 

For  young  children,  and,  indeed,  for  older  ones  under  main 
conditions,  it  is  better  that  E  should  write  from  flfs  dictation, 
perhaps  stenographically. 

Treatment  of  Data. — In  general,  the  results  of  the  descrip- 
tion test  are  not  intended  to  be  submitted  to  exact  quantitative 
treatment,  but  are  to  be  inspected  for  the  purpose  of  forming  an 
opinion  of  <S"s  general  mental  type  and  capacity.  The  papers 
may,  however,  be  treated  quantitatively,  by  (1)  counting  the 
number  of  words  written,  or  (2)  counting  the  number  of  lines 
written.  E  may,  further  (3),  record  in  general  terms  the  readi- 
ness and  ease  with  which  S  undertakes  the  description,  and  (41 
may  rate  his  paper  as  a  whole,  with  respect  to  its  comparative 
merit,  on  a  score  of  10  for  a  satisfactory  or  adequate  descripl  ion. 
(5)  The  description  may,  perhaps,  be  classified  also  with  rei 
to  its  general  type  or  character,  following  the  classification 
adopted  by  Binet,  Le  Clere,  and  others  as  explained  below.  |  6  I 
It  is  possible,  following  Cohn  and  Dieffenbacher,  to  score  de- 
scriptions more  formally  and  precisely  after  the  manner  pro- 
posed for  reports  (Test  32).  (7)  Descriptions  of  the  postage 
stamp  may  also  be  catalogued  with  respect  to  the  items  men- 
tioned, as  was  done  bv  Monroe. 


12    [378]  DESCRIPTION    AND   REPORT 

Results. —  (1)  The  description  of  an  object  is  inadequate, 
because  it  is  almost  invariably  simplified,  i.  e.,  a  considerable 
number  of  its  features,  even  important  features,  are  unmen- 
tioned.  Thus,  in  one  of  Binet's  photographs,  of  the  22  objects  or 
features  that  were  mentioned  at  all,  only  9.4  were  mentioned,  on 
the  average,  in  each  description. 

(2)  This  simplification  or  reduction  in  the  description  is  the 
result  of  what  might  be  termed  a  process  of  selection.  Certain 
features  are  mentioned  in  practically  all  descriptions,  others  are 
mentioned  only  occasionally.  By  tabulating  the  number  of  times 
each  feature  is  mentioned,  one  may  discover  some  of  the  princi- 
ples which  condition  this  selective  process.  Thus,  in  Binet's 
picture  of  the  "Laborer,"  the  old  man  is  mentioned  36  times,  his 
sons  30,  his  bed  29,  the  seated  woman  27,  etc.,  until  we  come  to 
relatively  unimportant  objects  that  may  almost  escape  mention 
at  all,  e.  <j.,  a  stick  in  the  hands  of  one  of  the  children — only  4 
times  in  36  descriptions.  When  pictures  are  used,  persons  are 
more  often  mentioned  than  furniture  or  other  details  of  the  set- 
ting of  the  scene. 

Similarly,  in  the  stamp-test,  tabulation  indicates,  according 
to  Monroe,  the  following  order  of  frequency  of  mention:  (1) 
Avord-inscriptions,  (2)  color,  (3)  number-inscriptions,  (4)  por- 
trait, (5)  substance,  (6)  form,  (7)  use,  (8)  perforated  edge,  (9) 
size,  (10)  cancellation,  (11)  ornamentations.  The  item  use  de- 
clines with  age:  all  others  are  mentioned  more  frequently  as 
age  increases. 

(3)  Dependence  on  sex.  Monroe  states  that  girls  generally 
mention  more  items  than  boys,  and  "seem  to  surpass  boys  in 
their  knowledge  of  the  postage  stamp."  It  is  not  clear,  however, 
whether  this  seeming  superiority  is  due  to  better  observation,  to 
greater  industry  or  to  greater  zeal  and  conscientiousness.  Cohn 
and  Dieffenbacher  similarly  find  the  descriptions  by  girls  more 
comprehensive  than  those  by  boys. 

(4)  Dependence  on  age.  Cohn  and  Dieffenbacher  tested 
school  children  7  to  20  years  of  age  with  a  colored  picture  ('Puss 
in  Boots').  There  was  no  clear  augmentation  of  the  range  of 
description  after  10.5  years  in  the  case  of  the  boys.  At  the  age 
cf  8.  the  description  is  predominantly  an  enumeration  of  objects. 


CBST  31:  DESCRIPTION  OF  AN  OBJ  EC!  9  j    13 

though  not  a  single  color  was  mentioned  by  boys  of  that  age. 
Esthetic  and  interpretative  features  are  rarely  noted  before  the 
Lfith  year,  when  a  reflective  element  is  flrsl  apparent  Increase 
of  age  i-  characterized  by  an  increase  in  organization  and 
tematization  of  the  descriptions.  Actual  errors  are  relatively 
uncommon  :  the  few  thai  are  met  \\  ith  i  fidelity  is  ' » 7 . i!  per  rent. 
among  boys,  98.7  per  cent,  among  girls)  are  often  verbal  mis- 
takes, i  lie  n  mail i.l.  v  true  errors  of  apprehension. 

(5)  Individual  differences.  In  L50  accounts  of  the  photo 
graph,  Binel  found  no  two  alike.  This  wealth  of  individuality 
makes  the  des<  ription-tesl  a1  once  valuable  and  difficult — valu- 
able as  an  indication  of  the  variety  of  mental  constitution,  diffi- 
cult as  to  quantitative  or  comparative  treatment.  A.san  extreme 
illustration,  one  may  contrast  the  following  descriptions  of  a 
postage-stamp — the  first  by  a  girl  of  8,  the  second  by  a  boy  of  L6. 

(a)  "The  postage  stamp  has  a  picture  In  tt.    The  |  imp  costs 

two  cents,    [t  says  united  stal  ;eonit.    The  man  has  hair  braided 

In  back  of  his  head.  The  Boarder  is  round,  n  has  arms  on  it.  The  shape 
is  square.  The  color  is  red.  The  man  is  White.  You  can  gel  these  to  the 
postice  [posl  office]  Cor  two  cents.  There  arc  lines  around  the  boarder. 
The  i.a.-k  of  the  -lamp  is  whim,  it  has  nomber  2  on  each  side  of  it.  The 
man  has  long  hair." 

I  I,  i    "COMMENTS  ON    I'.M     ACCOMPANYING    U.   S.   01    AMI  HI.  A  2  CEN1    P08TAQ] 

si  AMI*. 

■■|.  its  meaning:  The  Postage  stamp-  have  glorious  history,  in  the 
pa-t  r.T  years  they  have  been  mure  and  more  useful  until  now  they  arc  not 
only  absolutely  ne<  essary,  but  constitute  one  of  the  great  hel]  s  in  the  study 
of  Geography,  and  one  of  the  noblest  pleasures  for  thousands  and  minimis 
of  people;  Kings  and  Queens  as  well  as  children  in  the  most  miserable 
social  condition. 

"2.  This  Postage  stamp  has  the  red  color  and  is  now  next  to  the  one 
penny  stamps  of  Greal  Britain  the  most  extensively  used  stamp  used  in 
the  world.  It'  I  am  not  wrong  its  circulation  in  the  past  and  present  is  the 
next  largest  of  all  others.    The  one  penny  stamp,  I  think  lias  the  first 

place. 

"3.  Its  surroundings  arc  very  Interesting.  It  is  mounted  on  a  piece  of 
paper,  rcm.-iind.  r  of  an  envelope,  which  I'act  easily  indicates  thai  it  is  used 

In  the  most  cases  for  letter  correspondence.    I  notice [Continues 

in  this  and  the  fourth  paragraph  a  description  of  the  stamp  itself.] 

"5.  Some  particular  observations.  1  had  500-600  of  them  at  home 
which  my  cousin  had  the  kindness  to  send  me.  Of  course  they  are  of  U0 
special  value,  hut   yet    they  leaeh   my   little  brothers  the  important    lesson 

that  such  a  little  thing,  like  a  stamp,  will  do  all  the  necessary  thing 
the  transportation  <>f  a  letter  or  other  mail  matter  from  the  Atlantic  to 
the  Pacific,    it  is  very  Interesting  to  me  that  with  the  march  of  civiliza- 
tion the  great  Postal  system  of  the  World  has  increased  its  actions  more 


14    [380]  DESCRIPTION    AND   REPORT 

and  more  until  it  is  now  one  of  the  chief  functions  under  the  sun.  How 
much  this  single  stamp  has  done  I  cannot  say,  but  I  know  that  some 
stamps,  precisely  like  this,  have  done  great  service  to  the  country." 

(6)  Types.  Notwithstanding  this  diversity,  investigators 
have  sought  to  classify  descriptions  into  a  limited  number  of 
types.  Thus,  Binet  proposes  four  types— the  descriptive,  the 
observational,  the  emotional  (poetic,  imaginative),  and  the 
erudite — each  present  in  varying  shades  and  degrees. 

(a)  The  describer,  or  enumerator,  as  one  might  term  him,  merely  cata- 
logs the  features  of  the  object  before  him,  with  little  regard  for  their 
interrelations,  or  for  the  meaning  of  the  object  as  a  whole. 

Example  :  "The  cigarette  has  the  general  form  of  a  cylinder,  cut  at  one 
end  by  an  inclined  plane  where  the  paper  is  folded.  It  is  stuffed  with  a 
rather  dark  brown  tobacco.  The  paper  is  striped  lengthwise.  The  paper 
is  somewhat  bruised.  The  tobacco  projects  about  0.5  centimeter  from  one 
end." 

(b)  The  observer,  though  not  necessarily  more  intelligent  or  clever  than 
the  deseriber,  places  more  emphasis  upon  the  interrelations  of  the  several 
features  that  he  mentions,  interprets  what  he  sees,  conjectures  and  indi- 
cates the  significance  of  the  object  as  a  whole.  This  type  is  also  men- 
tioned by  Mrs.  Bryant  in  her  'description-of-a-room'  test  (4). 

Example :  "A  long,  white,  round  object,  composed  of  a  paper  cylinder, 
about  %  or  %  centimeter  in  diameter,  filled  with  what  is  probably 
Oriental" tobacco.  It  is  about  7  centimeters  long  and  must  weigh  about  6 
grams  [really  2  g.J.  It  is  a  badly  rolled,  uneven  cigarette,  and  has  been 
handled  since  it  was  pasted.  In  two  places,  to  the  right  and  left  of  the 
middle,  the  paper  shows  streaks  as  if  it  had  been  twisted.  Other  hori- 
zontal depressions  indicate  that  there  has  been  some  pressure  exerted 
upon  the  cigarette.  I  don't  see  the  line  where  it  has  been  stuck,  but  it 
must  be  badly  fastened." 

(c)  The  emotional,  imaginative,  or  poetic  8  is  less  accurate  in  observa- 
tion, but  introduces  emotion,  sentiment  or  imaginative  interpretation  in 
his  description. 

Example:  "It  is  a  cigarette.  It  is  thin,  long,  somewhat  wrinkled.  Its 
shape  suggests  a  kind  of  elegant  ease.  Is  it  the  cigarette  itself  or  the 
memories  that  it  awakes  that  remind  me  somehow  of  a  scape-grace?  The 
cigarette,  there,  all  by  itself  on  the  table,  makes  me  think  of  the  bad 
student  that  goes  off  in  the  corner  by  himself  to  smoke.  But  I  must  write 
about  the  cigarette  itself,  and  banish  the  idea  of  the  smoker,"  etc. 

(d)  The  erudite  S  tells  what  he  knows,  what  he  has  been  taught,  or 
interjects  bits  of  personal  information  about  the  object.  This  may  indi- 
cate the  presence  of  an  unusual  fund  of  information,  or  it  may  indicate 
sheer  laziness,  in  that  it  is  often  easier  to  write  what  one  knows  than 
actually  to  describe  from  direct  inspection. 

Example :  "We  have  before  us  here  a  cigarette.  Let  us  see  how  it  is 
made.  In  the  first  place,  the  exterior  envelope  is  of  light  paper,  called 
silk-paper.  Then,  inside  is  the  tobacco.  Tobacco  is  a  product  that  grows 
almost  everywhere  in  warm  or  temperate  climates.  The  leaves  of  this 
shrub  are  gathered,  and.  after  a  treatment  which  lasts  four  years,  are 
turned  over  to  the  public  in  the  form  of  powder,  that  is,  snuff,  or  in 
shreds,  as  in  the  present  instance,"  etc. 


TEST  31  .'  DESCRIPTION  OF  AN  ObJ  I         [381]  15 

Miss  Sharp  did  not  attempt  a  classification  into  types,  but  noted  tbat 
S's  observation  "may  be  primarily  directed  to  the  particular  objects  or 
details  of  the  picture,  to  the  general  arrangement  of  the  objects,  that  is, 
the  composition  of  the  picture,  or  to  the  meaning  of  the  picture,  the  story 
which  it  conveys, — the  details  observed  being  sucb  as  lead  up  to  this  Inter- 
pretation, or  explain  an.i  apply  the  Interpretation  thai  is  given  first  The 
different  ways  In  which  the  same  picture  appeals  to  the  various  indi- 
viduals indicate  differences  in  mental  constitution." 

The  results  of  LeClere's  lesl  are  nol  directly  comparable  with  those  of 
other  Investigators,  because  his  Instructions  were  not  to  describe  the 
object  (gold  watch  i.  but  to  "write  something  that  comes  Into  mind  as  yon 
look  at  ii."  He  distinguishes  in  the  contributions  made  by  .";<»  girls,  aged 
13  to  17  years,  seven  types,  viz.:  description,  observation,  imagination, 
moral  reflection,  erudition,  pure  <>r  Bimple  emotion,  and  esthetic  emotion. 
Lie  does  aol  find,  however,  thai  any  one  of  his  fir's  contributes  a  paper  that 
may  he  classified  Ln  any  one  Of  these  types,  Qor  dues  any  paper  give  evi- 
dence of  a  'complete  mind,"  Ln  the  sen-,,,  thai  all  seven  of  the  types  arc 
represented  therein,  in  general,  older  or  relatively  more  intelligent  chil- 
dren write  more  varied  or  complex  papers,  i.  > ..  approach  the  theoretically 
'complete'  type  <>f  mental  constitution. 

Mention  may  be  made  here  of  the  use  of  pictures  in  the  Binel  Simon 
scale  with  the  simple  question:  •'What  do  you  see  in  that  picture'/"  or 
"What  is  that  picture  about?"  Credit  is  given  the  child  according  as  his 
replies  indicate  mere  enumeration  or  a  comprehension  of  the  total  mean- 
ing of  the  scene  depicted.  Mile.  Deseoeudres  (0)  has  extended  the  scoring 
of  this  form  of  description  test  by  assigning  scores  to  replies  of  different 
qualities  and  .also  by  noting  the  number  of  ideas  expressed,  she  gave  a 
Credit  of  1  lor  Simple  enumeration,  L!  il"  a  phrase  or  sentence  was  used  and 
:-:  if  the  replies  showed  Interpretation  of  meaning.  Application  of  three 
pictures  (not  those  used  by  Binet)  to  11  backward  children  showed  that 
rank  in  quality  correlated  distinctly  with  rank  in  quantity  and  also  with 
estimated  intelligence  (.84,  P.E.  .02). 

Xi.i  i:s. — The  attempt  to  use  the  description-test  for  classifies 
lion  of  N's  into  types  of  mental  constitution  is  of  obvious  inter- 
est. The  drawing,  from  such  a  classification,  of  inferences  as  to 
the  mental  make-up  of  the  S's  is  as  obviously  hazardous,  for  8 
may  write  his  description  in  the  vein  that  he  thinks  is  wauled 
by  E.  Tims,  Binet  had  reason  to  think  that  several  flf's  that  he 
had  classed  as  poetic  or  emotional  were  actually,  in  their  every- 
day life,  of  a  very  matter-of-fact  and  unsympathetic  disposition. 
ln  general,  the  drawing  of  inferences  from  the  work  of  S's 
would  become  safer  in  proportion  as  the  descriptions  were  in- 
creased in  number  and  variety,  i  e.,  an  8  who  wrote  in  an  emo- 
tional vein  in  four  descriptions  of  four  different  objects  has.  pre 
Bnmably,  a  real  emotional  constitution. 

What  may  be  regarded  as  a  modification  of  the  description 
test  is  the  test  employed  by  Squire  (10),  in  which  children  of 


16    [382]  DESCRIPTION    AND   REPORT 

various  school  grades  were  shown  a  series  of  5  pictures  and 
asked  in  each  case  (a)  to  supply  an  appropriate  title  to  the  pic- 
ture, and  (& )  to  ask  an  appropriate  question  about  the  picture. 
The  titles  proffered  by  the  children  were  classed  under  five 
rubrics:  "mere  enumeration  of  objects,  description  of  pictures, 
unification  in  terms  of  action  of  principal  figures,  superficial 
unification  in  terms  of  relation  to  principal  object  and  complete 
comprehension  evidencing  imaginative  insight." 

With  regard  to  the  first  problem,  Mrs.  Squire  concludes :  ( 1 )  No  six- 
year-old  child  can  be  expected  completely  to  comprehend  a  situation  pre- 
sented pictorially.  (2)  Neither  can  a  seven-year-old  child  be  expected  to 
give  an  adequate  title.  (3)  The  eight-year-old  children  are  inclined  to 
interpret  meaning  in  terms  of  action,  and  a  few  are  able  to  give  super- 
ficial titles.  (4)  Tn  the  ninth  and  tenth  years  the  titles  given  are  mostly 
descriptive,  but  put  tersely,  rather  than  in  disjointed  statements.  (5) 
By  the  twelfth  year  the  majority  of  the  names  given  will  pass  for  titles, 
though  a  large  proportion  still  deal  with  superficial  aspects.  (6)  There 
are  many  cases  of  complete  comprehension  in  the  thirteenth  year. 

With  regard  to  the  second  problem,  replies  may  be  classed  as  failures, 
irrelevant,  minor  or  essential.  There  are  no  failures  after  the  eighth 
year,  while  the  percentage  of  'essential'  questions  rises  from  6  at  age  7  to 
58  at  age  13. 

It  is  scarcely  necessary  to  add  that  these  conclusions  obtain  only  for 
the  particular  pictures  employed  by  Mrs.  Squire,  whose  article  should  be 
consulted  by  those  who  seek  to  repeat  this  form  of  test  of  comprehension. 

REFERENCES 

(1)  A.  Binet,  .  Psychologie  individuelle.  La  description  d'un  objet. 
AnPs,  3:  1896  (1897),  296-332. 

(2)  A.  Binet,  L'etude  experimentale  de  rintelligence.  Paris,  1903.  Pp. 
309. 

(3)  A.  Binet  and  V.  Henri,  La  psychologie  individuelle.  AnPs,  2 :  1895, 
(189G),  411-465. 

(4)  Sophie  Bryant,  Experiments  in  testing  the  character  of  school 
children.  J.  Anthrop.  Inst,  of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland,  15:  1886, 
33S-349. 

(5)  J.  Cohn  and  J.  Dieffenbacher,  Untersuchungen  iiber  Geschlechts-, 
Alters-  und  Begabungs-Unterschiede  bei  Schiilern.  Beihefte  zur  ZAnyPs, 
2:   1911,  pp.  21.3. 

(6)  Alice  Descoeudres,  Exploration  de  quelques  tests  d'intelligence 
chez  des  enfants  anormaux  et  arrieres.     ArPs  (/),  11:    1911,  351-375. 

(7)  A.  LeClere.  Description  d'un  objet.    Anrs,  4:   1897  (1898),  379-389. 

(8)  W.  Monroe,  Perception  of  children.    PdSc,  11:   1904,  498-507. 

(9)  Stella  Sharp,  Individual  psychology:  a  study  in  psychological 
method.    AmJPs,  10:   1899,329-391. 

(10)  Carrie  R.  Squire,  Graded  mental  tests.  JEdPs,  3:  1912,  363-380, 
etc.,  especially  373f. 


TEST  32  :  FIDELITY   OF  REPORT  [383]     17 

TEST  32 

Fidelity  of  report  (A ussage  test). — Capacity  to  observe,  or 
range  of  observation,  may  be  tested  by  methods  previously  de 
scribed  (Tests  24  and  25)  ;  Dative  retentiveness  <>r  capacity  for 
recall  may  be  tested  by  methods  such  as  those  thai  arc  described 
in  subsequent  sections;  capacity  to  describe  wlmi  is  seen  may  be 
tested  as  has  been  indicated  inTesI  31,  bul  there  exists  a  type  of 
activity,  that  of  reporting  a  previous  experience,  which  in  a  way 
combines  these  sevi  ral  activities,  in  that  it  demands  both  atten- 
tive observation,  retention,  recall,  and  an  ability  t<>  marshal 
and  formulate  the  items  of  experience  in  a  verbal  report  (Al(8- 
sage).  In  Studying  the  'psychology  of  testimony,'  interest  lias 
been  developed  of  late  in  the  direct  examination  by  experimental 
methods  of  the  capacity  t<>  report  as  sudi,  and  it  lias  been  found 
that  reports  may  exhibit  varying  degrees  of  fidelity  or  reliability, 
more  or  less  independently  of  the  capacity  that  the  reporters 
possess  to  observe  or  to  retain  experience;  in  other  words, 
reports  may  contain  discrepancies  or  inadequacies  which  are 
due,  not  only  to  misdirected  attention,  mal-observation  and 
errors  of  memory,  but  also  to  lack  of  caution  or  of  zeal  for  accu- 
rate statement,  to  scanty  vocabulary,  to  injudicious  phrase 
ology,  or,  of  course,  to  deliberate  intent  to  mislead.1 

Historically,  the  idea  of  subjecting  capacity  <»f  report  to  test 
seems  first  to  have  been  definitely  proposed  by  Binet  (3).    Since 

'It  is  true  that  no  hard  and  fast  line  can  lie  drawn  between  the  report- 
test  and  the  test  of  range  ei'  apprehension,  or  between  it  and  the  ordinary 
memory-tesl  :  in  the  main,  however,  range  of  apprehension  Implies  a  brief 
exposure  followed  by  simple  enumeration  of  the  objects  seen,  bo  thai  what 
is  tested  is  capacity  to  grasp  or  observe,  rather  than  rapacity  to  retain  or 
to  formulate.  And  the  stock  memory-test  measures  the  amount  Of  mate 
rial  that  can  he  reproduced;  in  it  the  learning  is  usually  by  heart,  and 
the  reproduction  is  largely  mechanical,  in  the  report-test,  the  object  i* 
more  t plex,  the  lime  of  scrutiny  much  longer  than  in  the  observation- 
test,  while  stress  is  placed  as  much  upon  quality  as  upon  quantity  of  re 
production,  especially  upon  the  fidelity  of  reproduction  as  conditioned 
by  such  personal  factors  as  timidity,  cautiousness,  assurance,  skill  in 
verbal  formulation,  etc.  Again,  the  typical  memory-test  comprisi 
direct  verbal  reproduction  of  verbal  material,  while  the  typical  Aussage 
test  comprises  a  verbal  presentation  of  materia]  originally  experienced 
as  visual  scenes  (pictures,  events,  etc.),  with  or  withoul  some  verbal 
features.  Nevertheless,  in  the  interrogation,  the  report-tesi  does  closely 
resemble  an  ordinary  test  of  memory. 


18    [384]  DESCRIPTION    AND   EEPORT 

then,  the  study  of  the  psychology  of  testimony  has  found  its  most 
enthusiastic  and  active  expositor  in  Stern,  who  has  written  an 
extensive  monograph  (31)  on  the  subject,  and  in  whose  period- 
icals (Beitrdge  zur  Psychologie  der  Aussage  and  Zeits.  f.  ange- 
wandte  Psychologie)  most  of  the  work  of  subsequent  investi- 
gators has,  directly  or  indirectly,  appeared.  The  applicability 
of  this  line  of  work  to  many  practical  problems,  particularly  in 
the  field  of  jurisprudence,  is  too  obvious  to  need  further  com- 
ment. 

GENERAL    METHODOLOGY    OP   THE   REPORT-TEST 

1.  Choice  of  material.  Of  the  several  types  of  material  that 
have  been  elaborated  for  the  study  of  the  report,  e.  g.,  the  picture- 
test,  the  event-test,  the  rumor-test,  etc.,  the  first  mentioned  has 
many  advantages  for  our  present  purposes.2  Two  types  of  pic- 
ture-test are  prescribed;  the  first  closely  patterned  after  that 
eDiployed  by  Binet  in  his  study  of  suggestibility  in  school  chil- 
dren, the  second  more  in  accord  with  the  stock  picture-test,  as 
developed  by  Stern,  Borst,  Wreschner,  Lobsien,  and  others. 

2.  Choice  of  evposu  re-time.  For  pictures,  times  ranging 
from  5  sec.  to  7  min.  have  been  used,  though  45-60  sec.  is  most 
usual.  The  principle  which  has  controlled  the  choice  of  expos- 
ure-time for  the  two  tests  that  follow  is  to  select  such  a  period 
as  will  permit  an  average  $  to  examine  each  detail  of  the  object 
once. 

3.  Choice  of  time-interval.  For  the  sake  of  brevity,  the  in- 
structions that  follow  prescribe  a  report  directly  after  the  ex- 
posure. If  circumstances  permit,  E  will  find  it  of  interest  to 
extend  the  interval  to  several  minutes,  or  even  hours  or  weeks. 
The  effect  of  lengthening  time-interval  has  not  as  yet  been  satis- 
factorily determined. 

4.  Choice  of  form  of  report.  There  are  two  distinct  forms  of 
report,  (1)  the 'narrative'  (Bericht.  recit),  (2)  the 'interroga- 
tory' (Yerhor  of  Stern,  Priifung  of  Wreschner,  interrogatoire  of 


'For  a  discussion  of  these  advantages,  of  the  several  methods  in  detail, 
of  the  chief  results,  and  for  a  general  review  of  the  whole  field  of  the 
psychology  of  testimony,  the  reader  is  referred  to  an  earlier  discussion  by 
the  author  (34).  Suggestions  for  further  tests  will  likewise  be  found 
therein. 


TEST  82:  FIDELITY  OF  BEPoIU  [385]    li> 

Borst,  forcage  de  memoire  or  questionnaire  of  Binet)  .8  The  nar- 
rative is  a  free  account,  delivered  by  S,  either  orally  or  in  writing, 
without  comment,  question,  or  suggestion  by  E:  the  interroga- 
tory is  a  series  of  prearranged  questions;  the  replies  to  these 
questions  constitute  the  'deposition5  [Vehorsprodukt) ,  The 
constituent  parts  of  the  narrative  or  the  deposition  may  be 
termed  'statements'  or  'items.'  Each  form  of  report  has  its  ad- 
vantages and  its  disadvantages:  both  should  be  employed  when- 
ever possible. 

5.  Choice  of  form  of  interrogatory.  An  interrogatory  is 
'complete9  when  its  questions  cover  all  features  of  the  experience 
exhaustively,  and  are  propounded  to  all  S's  in  the  same  order 
and  manner  :  an  interrogatory  is  'incomplete'  when  its  questions 
are  restricted  to  such  as  refer  only  to  those  items  not  mentioned 
by  8  in  his  narrative.  The  interrogatories  that  follow  are  de- 
signed to  be  complete,  but  E  may,  by  appropriate  selection,  con- 
vert them  into  the  incomplete  type. 

6.  Choice  of  questions.  The  form  of  questioning  very  mate- 
rially affects  *S"s  deposition,  particularly  if  the  questions  are  of 
the  type  known  as  'leading'  or  'suggestive'  questions.  To  some 
extent  any  question  is  suggestive,  in  so  far  as  it  implies  that  its 
recipient  knows  something.  If  we  follow  Stern,  at  least  six 
types  of  questions  may  be  framed,  viz.:  determinative,  com- 
pletely disjunctive,  incompletely  disjunctive,  expectative,  im- 
plicative, and  consecutive. 

A  determinative  question  is  one  that  is  introduced  by  a  pronoun  or 
interrogative  adverb,  and  is  the  least  suggestive  form  of  question,  e.  g., 
"What  color  is  the  dog?" 

A  completely  disjunctive  question  is  one  that  forces  the  reporter  to 
choose  between  two  specified  alternatives,  e.  g.,  "Is  there  a  dog  in  the 
picture?" 

An  incompletely  disjunctive  question  is  one  that  offers  tbe  reporter  a 
choice  between  two  alternatives,  bul  dues  nol  entirely  preclude  a  third 
possibility,  e.  </..  "Is  the  dog  white  <>r  black?"  In  practise,  for  many  re- 
porters, especially  Cor  children,  this  form  is  virtually  completely  disjunc- 
tive, siine  a  certain  amount  Of  independence  is  demanded  for  the  choice 
of  the  third  possibility,  t .  //.,  for  the  answer  "The  dog  is  brown." 

An  expectative  question  Is  one  that  arouses  a  moderately  strong  sug- 

8The  terminology  of  the  report-experiment  has  developed  in  Germany 
and  France.  I  have  been  obliged  to  coin  English  equivalents— a  task  not 
always  easy  because  the  foreign  terms  have  not  been  chosen  with  special 
care  to  secure  consistency  or  to  accord  with  legal  phraseology.  For  this 
reason,  the  foreign  equivalents  are  included  here  and  elsewhere  In  the 
discussion. 


20    [386]  DESCRIPTION    AND   REPORT 

gestion  of  the  answer,  e.  g.,  "Was  there  not  a  dog  in  the  picture?"  (This 
is  the  form  used  by  Binet  to  induce  moderate  suggestion.) 

An  implicative  question  is  one  that  assumes  or  at  least  implies  the 
presence  of  a  feature  that  was  not  really  present  in  the  experience,  e.  g., 
"What  color  is  the  cat?"  In  practise,  it  is  clear  that  a  determinative 
question  might  become  implicative  if  the  reporter  had  completely  for- 
gotten the  item  to  which  it  referred.  (The  implicative  question  was  used 
by  Binet  to  induce  strong  suggestion.) 

The  consecutive  question  is  any  form  of  question  that  is  used  to  augment 
a  suggeston  that  has  been  developed  by  previous  questions. 

7.  Choice  of  method  of  grading.  Treatment  of  data.  In 
general,  the  adequacy  of  a  report  depends  both  upon  its  quantity 
and  its  quality :  quantity  is  measured  by  the  number  of  items 
mentioned  or  the  number  of  questions  answered  (in  absolute  or 
in  relative  terms)  and  is  referred  to  as  the  range  of  report 
(Umfang,  etendue)  ;  quality  is  measured  by  the  fidelity  of  the 
statements  made,  and  is  referred  to  as  the  accuracy  of  report 
(Treue,  fidelite). 

We  have  also  at  our  command  useful  indications  of  the  posi- 
tiveness  or  degree  of  assurance  that  S  places  in  his  report.  Be- 
sides (1)  complete  uncertainty  ("I  don't  know"  or  "I  have  for- 
gotten"), we  may  distinguish  (2)  hesitancy  ("I  think"  or  "I 
believe"),  (3)  positive  statement  or  assurance  of  ordinary  de- 
gree, and  (4)  attestation  or  attestable  assurance,  i,  e.,  the  high- 
est degree  of  assurance,  as  indicated  by  S's  willingness  to  take 
his  oath  that  the  statement  is  correct. 

On  this  basis,  the  data  may  be  subjected  to  treatment  for  the 
computation  of  a  number  of  'coefficients  of  report/  by  the  aid  of 
the  following  simple  formulas  : 

Coefficients  of  Report4 

Let  P  =  number  of  possible  items, 

n  —  number  of  items  reported  (or  replies  made), 
c  =  number  of  items  reported  with  certainty  (in- 
cluding attestation), 


4The  fourth  formula  is  used  by  many  writers,  in  place  of  the  fifth,  for 
accuracy  of  report ;  as  here  indicated,  however,  the  indeterminate  cases 
("I  don't  know")  are  omitted  from  the  denominator  in  computing  accu- 
racy. 

Next  to  range  and  accuracy,  the  most  important  coefficient  is  probably 
warranted  assurance  (Sth  formula),  as  a  high  ratio  indicates  a  good  wit- 
ness, who  reports  a  large  number  of  items  both  correctly  and  with  assur- 
ance. 


TEST  32  :  FIDELITY  OF  REPORT  [387]  21 

a=  number  of  items  whose  correctness  is  attested 
under  oath, 
n  i  v  i  -  number  of  items  reported  in  the  narrative, 
?/(/))-  number  of  items  reported  in  the  deposition, 
n(r)=  number  of  items  thai  are  rightly  reported, 
c(v)—  number  of  items  that  are  certain  and  right, 
o(r)=  number  of  items  that  are  attested  and  right, 
a(ir)  =  H u ii i her  df  items  thai  are  attested  and  wrong 
Thru 

(I)  n  —  range  of  report,  absolute!  /  Tmfang}  <  >•  ndue 
i  2)              d/P  =  range  of  report,  relal  ive, 

(3)  n(N)/n(D)=  spontaneity  of  report, 

(4)  n(r)/n    -  range  <»f  knowledge   (Umfang  des   Wissens, 

t'u ml iir  (hi  savoir) . 

(5)  n(r)/c  =  accuracy  of  report   |  Treue,  fide'Mte'), 

(6)  c/n  =  assurance  (subjective  Sicherheit,  assurana  I, 

(7)  c(r)/c  =  reliability  of  assurance  (Zuverlassigkeii  der 

8  i  c  h  i  rli  r  i  t .     SichrrJn  ilsh<  rechtigung, 

fidelAte  de  la  certitude  l, 

(8)  c(r)/n—  warranted  assurance  (Sicherheii  der  Person, 

assurance  justifii  <  l . 

(9)  c(r)/n(r)=  assured   accuracy    (Versicherte   Richtigkeit, 

justi  sse  certifi&  i . 

(10)  a/n  =  tendency   to   oath   or   arrestable    assurance 

i  tendance  <<u  serment  i . 

(II)  a(r)/n  =  warranted  tendency  to  oath  1 U  u<hin<-<  au  >■<  r 

ment  oSridique I . 
ill' i       o(t€»)/n  =  unwarranted  tendency  to  oath  1 1<  ndance  au 

faux-te"moignage  I . 
(13)        a(r)/o  =  reliability  of  oath  (fidelite"  du  serment). 

The  determination  of  P,  and  hence  <>f  relative  range  of  report,  is  often 
besel  wiih  difficnlty;  the  mosl  practical  working  rnle  Is  to  rank  as  'one 
Item'  any  combination  of  features  thai  forms  a  single  natural  working 
group,  the  details  of  which  would  escape  individual  observation  under 
ordinary  conditions.  Again,  P  may  be  taken  as  the  number  of  separate 
items  mentioned  by  a  competent  8  In  describing  the  picture  or  test-object 
by  direct  observation.  Or.  as  Hegge  (18)  proposes,  P  may  be  computed 
by  adding  all  the  specific  items  mentioned  In  the  reports  of  any  one  of  a 
number  of  S's.  Obviously,  the  magnitude  of  P  will  tend  to  Increase  with 
the  number  of  S'e  until  n  point  Is  reached  beyond  which  additional  reports 
fail  to  affect  it  appreciably. 


22    [388]  DESCRIPTION   AND   REPORT 

A  similar  difficulty  arises  in  deciding  what  items  and  how  many  should 
be  the  subject  of  questions  in  the  interrogatory.  In  general,  the  coeffi- 
cients computed  will  have  value  only  for  a  given  picture  or  event  and 
only  when  obtained  by  a  given  interrogatory,  and  the  interrogatory  must 
be  constructed  empirically,  on  the  basis  of  actual  preliminary  trials,  never 
a  priori. 

Although  different  errors  unquestionably  have  different  degrees  of  im- 
portance (to  forget  a  man  is  more  serious  than  to  forget  the  color  of  his 
necktie),  no  satisfactory  plan  for  arbitrarily  'weighting'  different  items 
has  been  devised. 

The  psychologically  best  method  of  grading  is  unquestionably  to  classify 
the  data  statistically  according  to  various  categories — such  as  persons, 
objects,  colors,  sizes,  etc. — and  to  compute  range,  accuracy,  assurance  and 
the  other  coefficients  for  each  category  separately.  This  will  greatly  in- 
crease the  labor  of  quantitative  treatment,  but  it  will  afford  valuable 
insight  into  the  qualitative  conditions  of  report  that  could  not  otherwise 
be  secured :  the  several  coefficients  can,  for  comparative  purposes,  be 
united  subsequently  into  a  single  series  of  coefficients  for  the  person  or 
persons  under  consideration. 

A.    REPORT-TEST  WITH  BINET/'s  CARD  OF  OBJECTS 

aIatekial. — Rectangular  sheet  of  orange-yellow  cardboard, 
33.5  X  40.5  cm.,  to  which  are  attached  two  photographs,  a  label, 
a  button,  a  penny,  and  a  postage  stamp.5    Watch. 

Method. — Give  8  the  following  instructions :  "I  want  to  try 
an  experiment  with  you  to  see  how  good  your  memory  is.  I  am 
going  to  show  you  a  large  card  with  a  number  of  things  fastened 
on  it.  You  will  have  just  half  a  minute  to  look  at  it.  Half  a 
minute  is  a  pretty  short  time,  so  you  must  look  very  carefully, 
because  afterwards  I  shall  want  you  to  tell  me  what  you  have 
seen,  and  I  shall  ask  you  questions  about  many  little  details, 
and  I  want  you  to  answer  these  questions  exactly,  if  you  can. 
Do  you  understand?" 

Place  the  card  directly  before  S  in  a  good  light.  At  the  end  of 
30  sec,  remove  it  and  keep  it  well  concealed.  Direct  8  at  once : 
"Now  tell  me  everything  you  saw :  describe  it  so  clearly  that  if 
I  had  never  seen  the  card  1  should  know  all  about  what  was  on 
it."  The  narrative  is  given  orally  by  S,  and  recorded  verbatim 
by  E,  without  comment,  query,  or  suggestion.  Reread  the  report 
to  S,  and  ask  him  to  indicate  what  statements  he  is  so  sure  of 


''These  objects  are  not  exact  duplicates  of  the  Binet  group,  and  the  card 
is  somewhat  larger.  The  exposure-time  and  the  questions  of  the  inter- 
rogatory have  been  correspondingly  modified. 


TEST  32  :  FIDELITY  OF  REPORT  [389]    23 

that  he  would  swear  to  their  accuracy.    Underline  these  state- 
ments. 

Proceed  next  with  the  interrogatory.  If  possible,  ask  8  the 
following  questions  in  the  order  given.0  Record  his  replies  by 
number,  verbatim,  and  underline  all  attested  replies. 

Interrogatory  for  the  end  <>j  objects. 

Mi  l  >id  yon  notice  a  coin .' 

(2)  Wha1  kind  of  a  coin  is  it?    (Whal  denomination?) 

(3)  Docs  it  show  'heads'  or  'tails?' 

(4)  Is  it  bright  or  dull? 

(5)  Is  it  in  good  condition,  or  scratched  and  marred? 

(6)  What  is  engraved  on  it?    (What  does  it  say?) 

(7)  How  is  it  fastened  to  the  cardboard? 

(8)  Did  you  notice  a  button? 

(9)  What  is  its  shape? 

(10)  What  is  its  color? 

(11)  Is  it  the  same  color  all  over? 

(12)  Is  it  made  of  cloth  or  of  some  other  substance? 

(13)  How  many  holes  are  there  in  it? 

(14)  How  is  it  fastened  to  the  cardboard? 

(15)  Did  you  notice  a  sttwll  picture  (print)  near  the  top  of 

the  cardboard? 

(16)  What  shape  is  it? 

(17)  What  does  it  represent?    (What  is  it  about?) 

(18)  How  many  persons  are  there  in  it? 

(19)  What  is  the  lady  doing  with  her  right  hand? 


n  may  Interfere  with  this  program,  either  by  anticipating  the  answers 
in  some  questions,  or  by  committing  errors,  e.  g.,  describing  an  essentially 
different  scene  In  the  larger  photograph  ;  In  such  an  event,  E  must  devise 
other  questions  to  follow  up  the  cues  thus  given.  Tims,  if  to  Question  14, 
S  replies  "By  :i  thread. "  ask  further  questions,  r.  </.,  "Do  the  threads  pass 
through  Ihe  boles  or  around  the  whole  button?"  "Draw  them."  "What 
color  are  they."  etc: 

It  is  probably  better  to  question  8  concerning  oh.leets  that  he  faUs  to 
mention  In  his  narrative,  save  that,  naturally,  if  the  first  question  in  ench 

group.   "Did  you   notice  ?"   is  answered   negatively,    the   remaining 

questions  about  that  object  are  omitted.  Many  children  fall  spontane- 
ously to  recall  one  or  more  objects,  but  can  nevertheless  answer  correctbj 
questions  about  them,  once  the  object  is  suggested. 


24    [390]  DESCRIPTION    AND   REPORT 

(20)  What  is  the  other  person  doing? 

(21)  Where  is  he  sitting? 

(22)  What  is  he  looking  at?    Describe  it  exactly. 

(23)  Is  the  name  of  the  picture  printed  on  it? 

(24)  Did  you  notice  another  picture?    {A  photograph?) 

(25)  What  shape  is  it? 

(26)  What  does  it  represent?    (What  is  it  about?) 

(27)  How  many  persons  are  there  in  it? 

(28)  How  are  they  dressed? 

(29)  Where  are  they  standing? 

(30)  How  many  animals  are  there  in  the  picture? 

(31)  Is  the  cart  on  wheels  or  not? 

(32)  Are  there  any  words  printed  in  the  picture?    What  are 

they? 

(33)  What  did  you  see  in  the  background  (in  the  back  of  the 

picture?) 

(34)  What  did  you  see  in  the  foreground  (in  the  front  of  the 

picture?) 

(35)  Is  the  picture  taken  in  summer  or  winter?    How  do  you 

know  ? 

(36)  Did  you  notice  a  stamp? 

(37)  Is  it  American  or  foreign? 

(38)  How  much  is  it  worth?    (What  denomination?) 

(39)  What  color  is  it? 

(40)  What  is  on  it?    (What  picture  or  printing  is  on  it?) 

(41 )  On  what  part  of  the  cardboard  is  it? 

(42)  Is  it  a  new  one  or  has  it  been  used?    (Describe  the  can- 

cellation mark.) 

(43)  Did  you  notice  a  label  (sticker,  paster?) 

(44)  What  color  is  it? 

(45)  What  shape  is  it?  (Is  it  perfectly  rectangular?  Draw  it.) 

(46)  Is  there  any  printing  on  it?    What? 

(47)  Is  there  any  border  around  the  printing? 

(48)  How  is  it  fastened  to  the  cardboard? 

(49)  How  is  it  placed  on  the  cardboard — right-side  up,  slant- 

ing, or  how? 
1 50)     What  color  is  the  cardboard? 


TEST  32 :  FIDELITY    OF  EEPOET  [391]    25 

Variations  of  Method.  —  (1)  To  Bhorten  the  experiment,  omit 
the  aarrative  and  take  only  the  deposition,  bn1  flrsl  ask  8  to 
name  the  objects  seen.    Record  the  number. 

(2)  Mature  's'"s  may  be  tested  in  si i mil  groups,  though  this  is 
not  recommended.  Both  narrative  and  deposition  must  then  be 
written  by  the  S's.  For  comparative  purposes,  the  same  pro- 
cedure miisi  be  followed  for  all  fif's,  Bince  oral  and  written  re- 
ports cannot  be  assumed  to  be  equivalent. 

(3)  To  i  in  luce  a  moderate  degree  of  suggestion,  E  may  recast 
the  questions  of  the  above  interrogatory  into  an  expectative  form 
and  add  others,  e.  .'/..  in  place  of  No.  L4:  "Is  not  the  button 
fastened  to  the  cardboard  by  a  thread?"  In  place  of  No.  30: 
"l<n'i  there  a  little  dog  besides  the  horse?"  [n  place  of  No.  12: 
"Isn't  the  postage-stamp  cancelled?"  Or,  for  additions :  "Isn't 
there  a  seventh  object  on  the  cardboard?"  "Draw  it."  "Arc  there 
nut  four  \\  heels  on  the  carl  '.'"*  etc. 

(4)  To  induce  a  strong  degree  of  suggestion,  E  may  recast 
the  questions  given  inl<»  an  implicative  form,  and  add  others  as 
desired,  e.  g.,  in  place  of  No.  9 :  "Draw  the  button  so  as  to  show 
the  place  where  it  is  broken."  In  place  of  30:  "Are  both  horses 
of  the  same  color?"  In  place  of  42 :  "Describe  the  cancellation- 
mark  on  the  stamp."  In  addition  to  K>:  "What  else  does  the 
label  have  on  it  besides  'Glass.  Handle  with  care.'?"  Or,  in 
place  of  -I  :  "Is  the  lit  I  le  i»<».\  's  mother  putting  her  arm  around 
him  as  he  sits  in  her  lap?"  For  additional  questions,  devise 
a  number  such  as:  "Is  the  lady's  necktie  dark  brown  or 
blue?"  etc. 

Results. —  (1)  "With  regard  to  the  number  of  objects  spon- 
taneously recalled,  the  following  results  indicate  the  outcome 
round  by  Binet7  with  23  children  9  to  VI  years  of  age  and  by  an 
experimenter  from  the  author's  laboratory  (12b)  with  34  school 
children  in  the  fourth  grade  of  an  Ithaca  i  X.  Y.)  public  school : 

Number  of  objects 6        a        I        .".        Average. 

French  children t      10       8        l  I  7^ 

[thaca    children m       10        6         t  5.00 

Counting  t  for  each  right  answer  and  0.5  for  each  partly  right 

Tor  :i  detailed  preseutati r  these  results,  see  Ms  book  (3.  pp   255 

329). 


26    [392]  DESCRIPTION    AND   REPORT 

answer,  the  Ithaca  children  scored  in  their  depositions  (possible 
score  =  50)  an  average  of  30.5,  with  a  maximum  of  43.5  and  a 
minimum  of  0.5. 

(2)  Bearing  in  mind  that  the  actual  objects  differed  some- 
what, the  reader  may  compare  Binet's  results  and  our  own  with 
regard  to  the  order  and  frequency  of  omission  in  the  narrative: 

Name  of  object stamp  label  button  coin  small  picture  large  picture 

French    children 10        9  4  3  2  0 

Ithaca  children 8        6  6  7  3  4 

(3)  In  tests  of  older  children  with  written  narratives,  Binet 
found  little  difference  in  the  total  number  of  objects  mentioned, 
but  marked  differences  in  the  wealth  of  details  and  the  precision 
of  their  formulation. 

(4)  The  objects  have  distinct  individuality,  i.  e.,  though  8 
may  forget  the  color  or  the  value  of  the  stamp,  yet  if  he  recalls 
the  object  at  all,  it  is  as  a  stamp,  not,  for  instance,  as  "some 
square,  greenish-colored  thing."  In  other  words,  8  recalls  a 
thing,  not  a  number  of  meaningless  attributes.8 

(5)  S'a  may  report  very  precisely  and  with  assurance  objects 
or  features  of  objects  which  are  totally  incorrect,  e.  g.,  they  may 
draw  the  thread  fastening  the  button,  and  take  oath  as  to  its 
presence.  Hence,  testimony  given  with  precision  and  detail  and 
with  the  highest  degree  of  assurance  may  be  absolutely  false. 

(0)  #'s  may  recall  one  feature  of  an  object  exactly,  but  fail 
entirely  in  their  description  of  another  feature  of  the  same  ob- 
ject, e.  g.,  recall  that  the  label  is  red,  but  err  as  to  its  shape.  It 
follows  that,  in  testimony,  a  witness  whose  assertions  are  veri- 
fied in  many  details  may,  nevertheless,  err  in  his  statements  with 
regard  to  some  other  detail  that  happens  not  to  be  susceptible 
of  verification. 

(7)  If  8  fails  to  mention  an  object  in  his  narrative,  but  re- 
calls it  immediately  in  the  interrogatory,  his  further  character- 
ization of  it  may  be  quite  as  accurate  as  that  of  other  $'s  who 
had  recalled  it  spontaneously. 


8In  the  author's  study  of  range  of  visual  apprehension,  however,  there 
appeared  numerous  cases  of  the  character  thus  denied  by  Blnet,  for  exam- 
ple, a  nickel  was  recalled  only  as  "something  bright  and  round  in  the 
upper  corner  of  the  cardboard." 


TEST  32:  FIDELITY  OF  REPORT  [31)3]    27 

(8)  In  comparing  different  types  of  questions,  Binet  found 
2G  per  rent,  error  for  indifferent,  38  per  cent,  for  moderately 
suggestive,  and  Gl  per  cent,  error  for  strongly  suggestive  ques- 
tions. 

B.   REPORT-TEST   WITH    A   COLORED    PICTURE 

Materials— Se1  of  four  colored  pictures:  "Australians,"'  "A 
Disputed  Case,''  ''Washington  and  Bally,"  and  "Tin-  Orphan's 
Prayer.""    Watch. 

Method. — Give  8  instructions  analogous  to  those  in  the  pre- 
ceding form  of  report-test,  hut   without  specifying  the  lime  of 
exposure.    Expose  the  picture  for  20  sec.    Secure  an  oral  nana 
live  and  deposition  as  directed  above.    Suggestions  for  interrog- 
atories for  two  of  the  pictures  follow. 

Interrogatory  for  "A  Disputed  Case." 

(1)  How  wide  is  the  picture  (horizontally)  ? 

(2)  How  high  is  the  picture  (vertically)  ? 

(3)  Is  there  any  border :  if  so,  what  color? 

(4)  How  many  persons  are  there  in  the  picture? 

Take  the  person  on  your  right: 

(5)  Is  he  young,  middle-aged,  or  old? 

(6)  What  is  his  posture, — sitting,  standing,  or  lying  down  ? 

(7)  What  is  he  doing? 

(8)  What  is  his  facial  expression? 

(9)  Is  he  bald  <»r  has  he  abundant  hair? 

(10)  What  color  is  his  hair? 

(11)  Is  he  smooth-faced  or  has  he  a  moustache  or  a  beard? 

( 12)  What  color  is  his  beard  ? 


•AH  four  pictures  may  be  procured  through  ('.  II.  Stoelting  Co.,  Chicago 
111.  The  "Australians"  is  a  large  lithograph,  one  of  a  scries  called  Leute- 
mann's  Types  of  Nations,  catalogued  by  B.  Stelger  &  Co.,  New  York  city. 
It  is  recommended  for  use  with  large  groups,  numbering  from  10  to  50  or 
more  S's.  The  "Hindoos"  lithograph  prescribed  in  Tost  31  may  be  used 
with  this  for  check  tests,  as  it  is  of  the  same  dimensions  and  of  similar 
character. 

The  "Disputed  Case"  (Xo.  1235  of  the  Tahcr-Prang  Art  Co.'p  collection) 
is  recommended  for  use  save  for  very  young  children  or  tor  largo  groups. 
"Washington  and  Sally"  and  "The  Orphan's  Prayer"  (Nos,  699  and  1207. 
respectively,  of  the  same  collection)  may  be  used  for  subsidiary  and  i  heok 
tests. 


28    [384]  DESCRIPTION    AND    REPORT 


(13 
(14 
(15 

(16 
(17 
(18 
(19 
(20 
(21 
(22 
(23 
(24 


Does  his  moustache  conceal  his  mouth  ? 

Does  he  wear  eye-glasses  or  spectacles? 

Has  he  a  hat  on?    What  kind?    What  color 

Where  is  his  right  hand  ? 

Where  is  his  left  hand  ?  - 

What  color  is  his  coat  ? 

What  color  is  his  shirt? 

Has  he  a  collar  on? 

What  color  is  his  necktie? 

What  color  is  his  vest  ? 

What  color  are  his  trousers? 

Does  he  wear  slippers  or  shoes  or  boots? 

Take  the  person  on  your  left  :10 


25-44)     Repeat  questions  5-24. 


45 

;46 

47 

'48 

49 

;50 

51 

52 

[53 

[54 

55 

56 

'57 

[58 

59 

60 

61 

62 

63 

64 

'65 


What  kind  of  light  or  lamp  is  used? 

Where  is  it  placed? 

Where  is  the  ink-well? 

Is  there  not  a  pen  in  it? 

What  color  is  the  dog? 

Is  there  a  table  or  bench? 

How  long  is  it  (really)  ? 

What  color  is  the  table  cloth  or  coveriug? 

Is  the  fringe  of  the  same  or  of  a  different  color? 

Name  the  objects  on  the  table. 

How  many  chairs  are  there  in  the  room? 

Is  the  rocking  chair  on  your  left  or  on  your  right? 

Is  there  an  umbrella? 

Do  you  think  it  is  jet-black  or  dark-blue? 

In  what  position  is  it? 

Name  the  objects  in  front  of  the  table  on  the  floor. 

Is  there  a  satchel  or  dress-suit  case  in  the  room  ?    Which  ? 

Is  it  open  or  shut? 

What  do  the  pictures  on  the  wall  represent? 

How  many  windows  are  visible? 

Can  you  see  any  detail  of  outdoor  scenery  through  them? 


"If  it  is  desired  to  economize  time,  omit  questions  25  to  44. 


i  BS'J  '■'<-  :  i  im:i.i iv  OF  BKPOttT  [395]    29 

i»»*i»     How  many  liais  arc  there  in  the  room? 

(67)  Describe  and  Locate  them. 

(68)  <"an  yon  recall  the  time  indicated  by  the  clock  on  tin* 

wall? 

(69)  What  objecl  is  on  your  extreme  right? 

(70)  Arc  there  any  hooks  in  this  part  of  the  room? 

i  71  i      What  color  is  t  he  wail '.' 

(72)  Where  is  the  newspaper? 

(73)  How   long  did  you  sec  the  picture? 

Interrogatory  for  the  •■Australians." 

i  I  i  How  main  persons  arc  there  in  the  picture? 

(2)  I  low   many  animals? 

i ::  i  What  kind  of  animals? 

i  1 1  What  is  the  person  on  your  left  doing? 

i  5  i  What  is  the  object  behind  him? 

Kli  Whai  is  the  person  in  the  middle  of  the  picture  doing? 

(7)  lias  this  person  a  heard  or  not? 

(8)  Is  the  man  who  is  in  charge  of  the  dog  holding  him  by  a 

leash   (guiding  rope)  or  by  taking  hold  directly  of  the 

scruff  of  his  neck? 
i !) »      What  arc  the  persons  in  the  background  doing? 
il(ii     Do  the  persons  in  the  foreground  wear  anything  beside 

the  loin-cloth? 
i  1  1  i      What  color  is  their  skin? 

(12)  What  color  is  the  dog? 

(13)  Whai   is  the  most   peculiar  thing  that  you   noted   in   the 

appearance  of  the  men  in  the  picture? 

(14)  "What  objects  lie  in  the  immediate  foreground? 
i  L5)     Is  there  any  water  represented  in  the  picture? 

(16)      Is  the  while  man  standing  on  1  he  left  or  on  the  right  ? 
i  IT  i      Is  the  sun  represented  in  the  picture  as  shining  from  your 

right  or  from  your  left  ?    How  do  you  know  ? 
(18)      How  long  did  you  sec  the  picture? 

Variations  of  Method.— Test  the  effect  of  varying  the  time 
<>f  exposure,  of  extending  the  time-interval  between  exposure  and 
report,  of  repeating  the  report  (narrative  or  interrogatory) . 
without  further  exposure,  two  or  more  times  at  intervals  of  sev- 


30    [396]  DESCRIPTION    AND    REPORT 

eral  days  or  weeks,11  of  confronting  S  with  the  picture  for  care- 
ful criticisms  of  the  report  he  has  submitted.  Though  it  is  not 
advised  as  the  best  method,  the  substitution  of  written  for  oral 
narratives  and  depositions  will  permit  an  instructive  class  ex- 
periment. 

Typical  Results. — The  following  narrative  by  a  college 
senior,  a  man  of  varied  experience,  mature,  much  traveled,  and 
well  trained,  though  of  mediocre  native  ability,  shows  clearly 
the  tendency  of  an  adult  8  to  describe  a  situation,  a  meaningful 
whole,  rather  than  merely  to  enumerate  details,  as  do  many  chil- 
dren. Indeed,  the  detail  here  is  distinctly  subordinated  to  the 
interpretative  rendering.  The  narrative  tells  what  the  picture 
is  about,  rather  than  what  it  is. 

"The  picture,  about  10x10  inches,  represents  a  scene  that  would  be 
typical  of  a  rural  justice  of  the  peace  and  a  man  who  has  come  to  ask  his 
advice  ou  some  subject.  The  Justice  sits  before  his  desk,  an  old  manu- 
script before  him,  one  hand  on  his  head  as  if  he  had  not  yet  given  his 
decision.  The  office  is  filled  with  books  and  on  one  of  them  in  the  left  of 
the  picture  rests  his  top-hat.  The  visitor  seems  to  be  troubled  very  much  ; 
his  clothing  denotes  that  he  is  of  a  different  station  in  life,  tie  has  placed 
Iiis  carpet-bag  on  the  floor  and  his  hat  near  it,  as  a  sign  of  great  mental 
strain,  which  seems  to  increase  as  he  awaits  the  decision.  On  the  wall  to 
the  right  is  a  double  map  of  the  world,  showing,  perhaps,  that  the  Justice 
is  a  man  of  wisdom  and  a  source  of  information  to  his  neighbors.  The 
room,  furniture,  the  maimer  of  dress  would  have  denoted  a  time  long  be- 
fore ours.    The  men  seem  to  be  about  65  or  70  years  of  age." 

In  his  deposition,  this  student  rendered  an  unusually  full  list 

of  answers:    the  reply — "I  don't  know"— is  given  only  twice 

(Questions  34  and  72).    The  range  of  report  is,  therefore,  large, 

but  the  fidelity  is  relatively  small,  since  all  the  statements  that 

follow  are  erroneous  ones  from  his  report  (those  italicized  are 

also  attested  statements)  : 

The  picture  is  14x14  inches.  The  man  on  the  right  is  bald,  wears  spec- 
tacles, has  his  right  hand  on  a  paper,  wears  a  collar,  a  purple  tie,  black 
trousers,  and  slippers.  The  man  on  the  left  is  thinking  hard,  has  a 
troubled  expression,  wears  a  sandy  moustache ;  he  has  his  right  hand  in 
his  pocket,  his  left  on  his  knee;  he  wears  a  light-colored  vest  and  brown 
trousers.  The  room  is  lighted  by  a  candle  which  stands  on  the  pile  of 
books.  There  is  a  pen  in  the  ink-well.  The  table  is  14  feet  long,  has  a 
light-colored  cloth  top  with  fringe  of  a  different  color.  There  are  three 
chairs  in  the  room,  the  rocker  being  at  the  left.  The  umbrella  is  dark  blue 
in  color,  and  lies  on  the  floor.  There  is  a  coat  on  the  floor  in  front  of  the 
table;  there  is  a  basket  on  the  table.    The  satchel  is  shut.    One  xoindow  is 

"See  Ref.  34  for  further  suggestions. 


il>i  32:  fidelity  of  uepurt 


[397]  31 


visible.    There  Is  a  chair  at  the  extreme  right  of  the  picture.    The  wall  is 
white.    (The  cuspidor  and  the  newspaper  arc  not  recall) 

General  Results  of  Tests  of  Report. —  (1)  Accuracy.  The 
chief  single  result  of  the  Aussage  psychology  is  that  an  errorless 
report  is  not  the  rule,  but  the  exception,  even  when  the  report  is 
made  i iv  a  competent  8  under  favorable  conditions.  Tims,  in  240 
reports,  .Miss  Borst  found  only  i!  per  cent,  errorless  narratives 
and  0.5  per  cent,  errorless  depositions.  These  errorless  reports 
are  commonly  characterized  bj  very  small  range,  i.  < ..  they  an* 
reports  of  8's  who  arc  extremely  cautious  and  Btate  only  what 
ilie\  are  certain  of.  For  certain  types  of  material,  particularly 
estimates  of  time,  space,  number,  etc.,  not  onlj  are  erroneous 
reports  the  rule,  but  the  most  common  single  answer  is  more 
likely  w  rong  than  right  |  I  lauber). 

The  average  n.  when  no  suggestive  qm-st ions  are  employed, 
exhibits  a  coefficient  <>f  accuracy  of  approximately  75  per  cent. 

(2)  Rangt  and  accuracy.  There  is  no  general  relation  of 
range  t«»  accuracy,  though,  for  a  given  n.  11  is  doubtless  true  that 
there  is  an  inverse  relation  bet  ween  t  liese  t  wo  coefficients.18 

(3)  Rang<  <ih<!  other  constants.  There  is  no  general  paral- 
lelism between  range  of  report  ami  other  coeffii  ients  whicb  de- 
pend upon  degree  of  assurance. 

TABLE    50 

Comparativi    Iccaracy  <■;  Sworn  <imi  i  nsworn  Statements 
(Sti  rn  and  Borst) 


STERN 

STEKN 

STERN 

BOB 

Range 

Errors 

Ranee     Errors 

Ranee 

Errors 

Ranee 

Errors 

Positive  statements— 

sworn  statements 

Unsworn  statements. 
<  vitain  statements     __ 
Uncertain  statements. 

(100) 

76 

13.6 

11 

20 

(100) 
fi8 
32 

19 

7 

(100) 

70 
30 

23 

11 

(100) 

60 

to 

97.5 

2.3 

11.0 
L£5 
44.0 

\  ott .    .Ml  figures  are  In  pi  c  cents,    'the  results,  save  tliose  of  the  third 
ana  fourth  columns,  refer  to  narratives,  not  depositions. 

'■The  reason  for  this  lack  of  general  relation  between  range  and  accu- 
racy is  presumably  that  there  are  two  kinds  of  good  witnesses— the  one 
possesses  good  capacity  ol  observation,  recall  and  report,  and  bence  exhib- 
its a  large  range  and  a  high  degree  Of  accuracy;  the  other  i<  cautious 
therefore  restricts  bis  range,  which  may  be  poor  at  best. 


32    [398]  DESCRIPTION    AND   REPORT 

(4)  Accuracy  and  attestation.  Generally  speaking,  attesta- 
tion does  not  guarantee  accuracy;  on  the  contrary,  though  the 
number  of  errors  is  nearly  twice  as  great  in  unsworn  as  in  sworn 
testimony  (according  to  Stern,  1.82  times,  according  to  Borst, 
1.89  times  as  great),  there  still  remains  as  high  as  10  per  cent, 
error  in  sworn  testimonj7.  These  relations  are  shown  clearly  in 
Table  50. 

(5)  Dependence  on  sex.'  In  all  of  Stern's  work,  both  in  narra- 
tives and  depositions,  with  pictures,  or  events,  or  estimations  of 
times  and  distances,  whether  under  oath  or  not,  the  reports  of 
men  have  been  more  accurate  (by  from  20  to  33  per  cent.), 
though  less  extended,  than  those  of  women,  and  a  similar  sex- 
difference  has  appeared  in  some  tests  of  school  children.  This 
superior  accuracy  of  boys  becomes  more  evident  when  the  report 
is  difficult  to  make.  Stern's  conclusions,  however,  have  not  been 
confirmed  by  Wreschner,  Breukink,  or  Miss  Borst.  Wreschner 
found  that  among  adults  women  did  better  than  men.  Breukink 
found  that  men  students  reported  slightly  more  than  women, 
but  with  less  accuracy,  especially  when  colors  were  concerned. 
His  men,  however,  proved  more  resistant  to  suggestive  questions. 
Miss  Borst,  similarly,  declares  women  to  be  superior  to  men,  but 
an  inspection  of  her  results  shows  that  the  superiority  of  women 
consisted  in  the  fact  that  they  returned  a  larger  number  of  cor- 
rect statements,  while  the  men  did  not  make  less  accurate  state- 
ments in  their  more  limited  reports.  A  recent  and  as  yet  unpub- 
lished investigation  conducted  by  Boring  (6)  in  the  author's 
laboratory,  in  which  groups  of  boys  and  girls  and  of  men  and 
women  reported  upon  the  events  displayed  in  a  moving  picture 
leads  to  the  conclusion  that  relatively  little  sex-difference  exists 
between  boys  and  girls  (with  a  tendency  in  favor  of  the  boys), 
Avhereas  a  quite  marked  and  certain  superiority  of  men  over 
women  exists  among  adult  $'s. 

More  specifically,  Borst  found  that  in  the  narrative  the  range  of  men 
was  7(3  per  cent.,  and  in  the  deposition  83  per  cent,  of  the  range  of  women, 
while  the  accuracy  of  men  in  both  forms  of  report  was  approximately  9G 
per  cent,  of  the  accuracy  of  women. 

There  is  a  similar  discrepancy  between  Stern  and  Borst  with  regard  to 
the  tendency  to  attestation ;  the  former  found  that  men  swore  to  71  per 
cent,  and  women  to  85  per  cent,  of  their  report,  whereas  the  latter  found 


i  BS'J   32  :  I  H'l.i.i  PI    01    RBI'OH  i  [399  |    33 

ihat  men  swore  to  61  per  cent,  und  women  to  but  59  pet  cent,  of  tbeit 
report 

Boring  found  e\  Idence  thai  boya  tend  to  ex<  eed  girls  in  range  of  report, 
tendency  to  oatb  and  unwarranted  tendency  to  oath,  while  glrla  undonbl 
edlj  exceed  boys  In  reliability  of  oath.  With  adults,  men  apparently  ex- 
ceed women  in  range  of  report,  and  they  undoubtedly  exceed  them  In 
rnnge  of  knowledge,  assurance,  warranted  assurance,  assured  accuracy 
and  reliability  of  oatb.  Women  possess  a  yerj  decidedly  greater  unwar- 
ranted tendency  to  oath.  The  fad  thai  Bex-differences  in  report  are  more 
pronounced  in  adults  than  in  children  accords  with  what  we  know  of 
differences  in  general. 

(6)  Dependence  on  age.  Mos1  experimenters  conclude  thai 
the  reports  of  children  are  in  every  way  inferior  to  those  <»t' 
adults,  thai  their  range  is  smaller,  their  inaccuracy  greater,  and 
their  warranted  assurance  and  reliability  of  assurance  much 

lower  he. -ai isc  their  assurance  is  too  great.  Stern  coin- hides  thai 
during  the  ages  7  to  L8  the  range,  especially  the  range  of  know! 
edge,  increases  as  much  as  50  per  cent.,  but  the  accuracy.  Bave 
in  the  deposition,  does  no1  increase  as  rapidly  il'd  per  cent.)' 
This  development  of  capacity  to  repori  is  no1  continuous,  bill 
characterized  by  rapid  modification  al  the  age  of  puberty. 
Nearly  all  experimenters  bave  commented  upon  the  excessive 
suggestibility  of  children  before  the  age  of  puberty.  Cohn  and 
Dieffenbacher  detected  improvement  in  fidelity  up  to  L5 years  in 
boys,  but  up  to  20  in  girls. 

Stern  has  endeavored  to  analyze  in  pari  the  developmenl  of  the  child's 
capacity  to  report,  and  has  distinguished  four  stages:  ( 1 1  the  very  young 
child  enumerates  only  Isolated  objects  or  persons  (Binet's  enumerator 
type)  :  (2)  at  aboul  the  eighth  year,  actions  are  reported  more  carefully; 
i .".  i  during  the  years  9-10,  attention  is  for  the  firsl  time  paid  to  spatial. 
temporal  and  causa]  relations:  ill  in  a  still  later  period  there  appears 
the  capacity  to  make  a  qualitative  analysis  <>r  the  constituenl  features  of 
the  objects  reported.  (John  and  Dieffenbacher  think  thai  there  should 
perhaps  be  added  a  lift 1 1  period,  from  16  years  on,  when  the  repori  shows 
evidence  of  reflective  and  Interpretative  consideration. 

The  question  as  to  whether  the  testimony  of  children  is  ao  imported 
as  to  warrant  absolute  exclusion  from  court  proceedings  has  given  rise  to 
much  discussion.  Thus,  Baginsky,  the  German  specialist  in  ehil 
dren's  diseases,  declares  thai  children  are  the  must  dangerous  of  all  wit- 
nesses and  demands  thai  their  testimony  be  excluded  wherever  possible. 
Gross,  the  leading  German  authority  on  criminal  law  and  criminal  psy- 
chology, however,  asserts  thai  a  healthy  half-grown  boy  is  the  besl  ]»>< 
sible  witness  for  simple  events,  thai  children  make  different  errors,  hut 
no  worse  ones  than  do  adults,  while,  in  respect  to  freedom  from  prejudice, 
erroneous  Interpretation,  emotion,  Intoxication  and  the  like,  a  child' Is 
better  fitted  than  an  adult  to  give  an  accurate  report 

Lipmann  contends,  quite  on  the  contrary,  thai  the  unreliability  of  chil- 


34    [400]  DESCRIPTION    AND    REPORT 

dren's  testimony  is  due  in  part  to  an  uncritical  filling  out  of  gaps  in 
memory,  and  in  part  to  an  unskillful  distribution  of  the  attention  (though 
the  child's  attention  is  well  enough  concentrated  on  what  he  does  report). 
Heindl  says  that  children  are  perfectly  good  observers,  perhaps  even  more 
objective  than  adults,  but  that  they  cannot  translate  their  observations 
into  verbal  reports  skillfully. 

The  work  of  Boring  was  specially  directed  toward  this  controversy.  He 
found  men  superior  to  boys  in  all  coefficients,  save  assurance,  assured 
accuracy  and  tendency  to  oath,  in  which  there  was  no  decided  difference. 
Women  exceed  girls  unquestionably  in  both  range  and  spontaneity  of 
report ;  women  display  a  greater  tendency  to  oath  and  a  greater  war- 
ranted tendency  to  oath,  but  they  also  display  a  greater  unwarranted 
tendency  to  oath  and  a  lesser  reliability  of  oath,  i.  e.,  they  seem  to  be 
less  cautious  than  girls. 

(7)  Dependence  on  intelligence.  There  is  no  conclusive  evi- 
dence upon  the  relation  between  good  report  and  general  intelli- 
gence. Winteler  found  no  difference  in  range  of  knowledge  and 
fidelity  of  report  between  the  three  most  intelligent  and  the  four 
least  intelligent  in  his  classes  of  10-year-old  boys. 

(8)  Dependence  on  social  status.  That  intelligence  may, 
however,  play  a  positive  role  is  suggested  by  the  conclusions  of 
Breukink  that  physicians,  professors  and  teachers  give  more 
extended  and  more  accurate  reports  than  nurses  and  laboring 
men,  and  that  the  cultured  group  is  much  less  open  to  suggestion 
than  the  uncultured  and  much  less  liable  to  take  oath  to  their 
answers  to  suggestive  questions. 

(9)  Defectives.  The  reports  of  defectives,  paralytics,  epilep- 
tics, the  insane,  etc.,  show,  as  one  might  expect,  a  very  high  de- 
gree of  inaccuracy,  even  when  the  pathological  condition  is  not 
seriously  developed.  Such  persons  are  also  highly  suggestible 
(de  Placzek).  Dupree  points  out  that  the  reports  of  such  per- 
sons are  peculiarly  dangerous  when  their  deficiency  is  latent  or 
concealed.  Gregor  found  that  paralytics  were  not  very  bad  re- 
porters when  the  conditions  were  all  favorable,  but  that  they 
fell  off  decidedly  under  less  favorable  conditions — long  time- 
interval,  suggestion,  etc. 

(10)  Dependence  on  time-interval.  Lengthening  the  inter- 
val between  experience  and  report  tends,  on  the  whole,  to  reduce 
range  and  accuracy,  but  there  is  nothing  like  the  loss  in  efficiency 
shown  in  typical  curves  of  forgetting  for  nonsense  syllables 
and  similar  material;  indeed,  for  some  8'a  the  report  may  be 


TEST  32:  FIDELITY    ul    EUBP0B1 


[401]   35 


improved  in  some  respects  after  several  days  have  elapsed.    Dal- 
lenbach's  flgures  (Table  51  i  may  be  taken  as  fairly  typical. 

TABLE    51 
Effect  of  Time-Interval  on  Report  {Dallenbaeh) 


NARRATIVE 

DEPOSITION 

INTERVAL 

Items  Recalled 

Per  Cent.  Error 

Questions 
Answered 

Per  Cent. 
Error 

0  _. 

5  Days 

765 
735 

10.5 
14.3 

880               14.1 
855               18.2 

15  Days 

750                      18.0 
569                      22.4 

854               20.7 

45  Days 

801               22.4 

From  his  earlier  tests,  Stern  computed  a  fairly  constant  decrease  of 
accuracy  with  time,  amounting,  on  the  average,  to  a  loss  of  0.33  per  cent. 
per  day  over  the  period  of  three  weeks  which  he  studied ;  similarly,  liorst 
computed  a  decrease  in  accuracy  of  O.l'T  per  cent,  per  day  during  a  period 
of  six  days. 

Though  range  and  accuracy  seem  thus  to  suffer  with  the  lapse  of  time, 
assurance,  as  shown  by  the  number  of  certain  and  attested  statements, 
is  not,  it  seems,  equally  affected,  but  shows  either  a  surprising  constancy, 
or,  if  anything,  a  tendency  to  increase.  E'rom  this  it  may  be  concluded 
that  assurance  and  tendency  to  oath  are  due  to  .S'"s  'personal  equation1 
lather  than  to  the  freshness  of  his  memory.  It  would  follow,  of  course, 
that  warranted  assurance  and  warranted  tendency  to  oath  decline  with 
the  lapse  of  time. 

In  explaining  the  improvement  found  in  some  reports  after  lapse  of 
time,  Scbultz  contends  that  perseveration  is  one  of  the  disturbing  factors 
in  reports  mam'  shortly  alter  the  experience;  in  so  far  as  perseveration  i< 
a  tendency  that  weakens  with  time,  there  would  thus  be  less  Inaccuracy 
from  this  source  of  error  in  later  reports. 

Jaffa  asserts,  more  positively,  that  narration  directly  after  an  event  by 
no  means  gives  the  besl  result;  rather  the  memory  of  the  event  is  organ- 
ized and  consolidated  several  weeks  later  and  then  affords  a  far  more 
faithful  picture  of  the  event  than  an  account  after  a  brief  interval.  It 
seems  doubtful,  however,  whether  such  a  view  <an  be  accepted  as  a  gen- 
eralization, however  true  it  may  be  tinder  some  conditions. 

That  the  lapse  of  time  occasions  various  and  complex  modifications  is 
also  indicated  by  the  work  of  Cohn  and  Dieffenbacher,  who  compared 
direct  descriptions  of  one  colored  picture  (Tesi  ::i  |  with  narratives  and 
depositions  upon  another  colored  picture  with  an  8-day  interval  between 
presentation  and  report.  Here,  while  there  was  a  positive  correlation 
between  tang.'  of  description  and  range  of  narration,  there  appeared  dis- 
tinct differences  in  the  nature  of  the  two  accounts,  r.  </.,  ads  and  Interpre- 
tations are  more  prominent  In  reports  than  in  descriptions, 

(11)     Dependence  on  form  of  report.     All  authorities  agree 
that  the  use  of  the  interrogatory,  whether  of  the  complete  or  in 


36   [402] 


DESCRIPTION    AND    REPORT 


complete  form,  increases  the  range  and  decreases  the  accuracy 
of  the  report.  Thus,  in  comparison  with  the  narrative,  the  range 
of  the  interrogatory  may  be  50  per  cent,  greater,  while  the  inac- 
curacy (of  the  incomplete  interrogatory)  may  be  as  much  as  550 
per  cent,  greater,  in  general  terms  we  may  say  that  about  one- 
tenth  of  the  narrative  is  inexact,  but  about  one-quarter  of  the 
deposition.  Typical  statistics  are  given  in  Table  52.  Cohn  and 
Dieffenbacher  believe  that  reliability  should  always  be  computed 
from  the  narrative  and  deposition  combined,  because  only  thus 
can  differences  in  the  two  forms  of  report  be  eliminated. 


TABLE    52 

Dependence  of  Report  on  Us  Form  (Stem  and  Borst) 


AUTHOR 

RANGE 

ACCURACY 

Narrative 

Deposition 

Narrative       Deposition 

Stern  . 
Borst 

25.5 
40.5 

52.1 
65.6 

Per  cent.          Per  cent. 

94              67.1 
89              83.0 

Note. — In  comparing  these  figures,  it  should  be  remembered  that  Stern 
used  an  incomplete,  and  Borst  a  complete  interrogatory. 

According  to  Breukink,  the  use  of  written  instead  of  oral  re- 
ports apparently  tends  to  increase  the  number  of  indefinite  an- 
s\\ -ers,  but  to  decrease  the  number  of  erroneous  answers. 

(12)  Dependence  on  the  type  of  question.  The  work  of 
Stern,  Lipmann,  Binet  and  others  shows  that  the  introduction 
of  leading  or  suggestive  questions  decidedly  decreases  the  accu- 
racy of  report  in  children  and  may  affect  seriously  the  testimony 
of  uncultured  adults,  or  even  of  competent  adults  unless  the  con- 
ditions are  favorable.  Stern  (33)  estimates  50  per  cent,  error 
for  7-year-old  children  and  20  per  cent,  error  for  18-year-old  >Sf's 
in  replies  to  suggestive  questions.  Most  experimenters  have 
found  women  less  resistant  to  suggestive  questions  than  men. 
Cohn  and  Dieffenbacher  find  relatively  slight  differences  in 
the  suggestibility  of  boys  and  girls,  though  the  boys  tend,  on  the 
whole,  to  take  a  somewhat  more  critical  attitude.    They  find  that 


TBST  32 :  FIDELITY    OF  EBPOR1  M"'*J    37 

the  decrease  in  suggestibility  with  age  is  more  marked  in  girls 
than  in  boys,  and  thai  greater  snggesl  ibility  in  dull  as  compared 
with  brighl  pupils  is  evident  in  girls,  l)iu  uol  in  boys.  These 
investigators  call  alien  i  ion  to  the  fad  thai  a  suggestive  question 
that  is  introduced  too  abruptly  (so  thai  iis  very  Form  attracts 
attention)  is  apt  to  arouse  immediate  resistance. 

(13)  Dependence  on  contents  or  features.  Nbl  all  the  Fea 
inrcs  of  the  original  experience  are  reported  \\  iih  the  same  fre- 
quency or  wiili  the  same  accuracy.  In  general,  we  may  say  thai 
persons  ami  their  ads.  objects,  things  ami  spatial  relations  are 
reported  with  considerable  accuracy  (85-90  per  cent.),  whereas 
secondary  features,  especially  quanl  itiesand  colors,  are  reported 
with  considerable  inaccuracy  |  reports  <>n  color  have  an  error  of 
from  40  to  50  percent.)  In  his  subsidiary  test  with  geometrical 
forms  of  different  shapes,  si/.es  and  colors.  1  >allenl>ach  found  the 
errors  most  frequent  with  color,  next  with  position,  nexl  with 
size,  and  least  witli  shape,  and  this  regardless  of  time-interval. 
Of  the  colors,  errors  were  most  frequent  with  green  and  least 
Frequent  with  yellow  tone.  On  the  reliability  of  different 
•  lasses  of  N's  witli  respect   to  different   features,  see  farther  the 

tables  of  Cohn  and  Dieffenbacher  I  1  la.  pp.  86f.). 

(l-J  i  Dependence  on  thi  ideational  type  of  the  reporter.  The 
best  reports  are  given  by  observers  of  a  mixed  ideational  type, 
e.  </..  acoustic-motor  or  visual-motor  <  Borst  >  :  even  in  a  picture 
test,  the  purely  visual-minded  observer  is  inferior,  though  less 
open  to  suggestion  (Lobsien). 

A  characteristic  analysis  of  reports,  for  the  purpose  of  <  •  I .- 1  >  s  i  f  \  i  i  _ 
p. 'i  tera  into  ideational  types  has  been  given  in  the  description  of-an  object 
lest  (No.  .'Hi.  in  which  Binet  distinguishes  four  types  of  reporter     the 
observer,  the  describer,  the  emotionally-minded,  and  the  erudite.     Miss 
Borsl  was  unable  to  use  this  classification,  however,  with  her  Sf's. 

Another  classification  of  reporters  according  to  mental  type  \\av  al 
tempted  by  Miss  Borst,  who,  after  a  preliminary  tachistoscopic  test,  com 
pared  the  reports  of  'fixating'  and  'fluctuating'  S's,  and  concluded  thai  S's 
whose  attention  is  of  the  'fixating'  type  bave  uniformlj  the  greater  war 
ranted  assurance  of  report  There  was  no  relationship  found  witb  extenl 
of  report. 

(15)     Qualitative  analysis  of  errors.     Stern  finds  four  kinds 
of  errors  in  the  narrative :   (a)  errors  of  apprehension  i  observa 
tion),  like  overlooking,  misapprehending,  underestimating,  over 


328486 


38    [404  J  DESCRIPTION    AND   REPORT 

estimating,  etc.;  (b)  real  errors  of  memory,  like  forgetting,  fill- 
ing in  of  gaps,  gradual  amplification,  etc.;  (c)  errors  of  imagi- 
nation, 'retouching'  the  recollection,  unintentional  blending  of 
imagined  experiences  with  the  one  reported,  or  the  harmless 
'playing'  with  the  report  (Falulieren)  often  seen  in  children, 
and  (d)  errors  of  judgment  (will),  like  lack  of  caution  or  self- 
criticism. 

Schultz  (29)  has  also  attempted  a  qualitative  analysis  of  the 
material  gathered  by  Aall  in  an  event  test.  The  following  are 
the  main  points  upon  which  stress  is  laid : 

(a)  Whether  an  item  is  reported  depends  both  upon  the  mental  state 
at  the  moment  and  also  upon  the  objective  complex  in  which  the  item 
occurs.  Attention  is  attracted  by  novelty  and  by  the  logical  significance 
of  the  impression. 

(&)  But  there  is  a  certain  'spread'  of  attention  such  that  details  that 
are  trivial  and  accessory  may  also  be  included  with  those  that  S  is  aiming 
to  observe. 

(c)  The  novel  attracts  attention,  hut  it  is  also  difficult  to  observe  cor- 
rectly. Optimal  conditions  are  given  when  a  familiar  thing  (easy  to 
understand)  is  in  an  unfamiliar  setting  (motive  of  novelty). 

(d)  An  event  which  suddenly  breaks  into  consciousness  and  disturbs 
the  set  of  the  moment  is  a  source  of  difficulty  until  a  new  adaptation  for 
it  is  secured. 

(e)  "Perseveration  plays  an  important  role  in  the  mistakes  of  wit- 
nesses." Its  falsifying  effect  decreases  with  time,  and  thus  reports  that 
are  separated  by  a  time-interval  from  the  event  may  be  better  than  imme- 
diately given  reports. 

(f)  There  takes  place  a  process  of  logical  elaboration,  the  effect  of 
which  is  to  emphasize  the  kernel  of  the  episode  and  to  minimize  unessen- 
tial details  (principle  of  conscious  economy). 

(g)  This  tendency  also  operates  to  distort  reports  so  as  to  make  them 
conform  to  what  the  witness  regards  as  the  natural  course  of  events.  Por- 
tions of  the  episode  unperceived  or  not  understood  are  filled  out  or  re- 
arranged in  accordance  with  this  principle.  Characterizations  of  persons 
especially  show  this  tendency. 

(h)  Many  &''s  show  a  distinct  tendency  to  embellish  or  round  out  their 
reports  into  good  literary  form,  and  may  thus  unwittingly  distort  their 
statements. 

(i)  If  the  experience  moves  S  emotionally,  his  reports  are  strongly  col- 
ored and  may  suffer  decided  modification,  particularly  reports  upon  verbal 
items  (quotations). 

'J)  Experiments  so  arranged  as  to  cause  8  to  believe  that  his  report 
is  serious  and  responsible  (not  a  mere  classroom  test)  produce  a  different 
conscious  attitude  and  reveal  the  presence  of  new  factors,  both  inciting 
and  inhibitory ;  in  general,  the  effect  is  to  augment  the  value  of  the 
testimony. 

(k)  That  a  witness  should  be  motivated  by  a  desire  to  awaken  a  cer- 
tain judgment  upon  a  case  need  not  be  an  undesirable  condition. 


TEST  32  :  FIDELITY   UF  REPORT 


[405]  39 


(1G)  The  effect  of  repeating  a  report.  When  8  is  called 
upon  to  make  his  reporl  Bevera]  times,  the  effect  of  this  repeti- 
tion is  complex,  for  1 1 1  it  tends  in  pari  to  establish  in  mind  the 
items  reported,  whether  they  be  time  or  false,  and  (2)  it  tends 
also  to  induce  some  departure  in  the  later  reports,  because  these 
are  based  more  upon  the  memory  of  the  verbal  statements  of  the 
earlier  reports  than  upon  the  original  experience  itself,  i.  e.,  the 
later  reports  undergo  distortion  on  account  of  the  flexibility  of 
verbal  expression. 

(17)  The  effect  of  practise:  educability.  On  the  basis  of 
Miss  Borst'swork  (Table  53),  il  would  appear  thai  simple  prac- 

TABLE    53 
Effect  of  Practisi   upon  Coefficients  of  Report  i  Vatrativt  \  (Borst) 


NUMBER  OF  REPORT   (TEST) 


Range I  39.0  39.0 

Accuracy 1  86.6  |    87.7 

Assurance j  96.6  ;    96.4 

Warranted  assurance 84.0  87.0 

Reliability  of  assurance |  87.5  89.4 

Assured  accuracy 97.0  9S.0 

Tendency  to  oath 43.0  59.8 

Warranted  tendency  to  oath..  I"-'  53.2 

Unwarranted  tendency  to  oath.  2.8  6.6 

Reliability  of  oath !  93.0  ;    88.8 


42.3 
92.9 
97.8 
91.0 
92.6 
98.4 
62.8 
58.5 
4.3 
92.5 


40.3 
88.2 
97.9 
88.0 
89.8 
98.6 
61.9 
57.5 
4.4 
93.0 


42.0 
90.0 
98.6 
89.0 
90.3 
99.2 
72.1 
66.5 
5.6 
91.7 


Vote.    The  effect  of  practise  in  these  testa  is  somewhat  obscured  by  the 
fad  that  the  flrsl  and  third  tests  were  made  after  a  3-day,  the  others  after 

,i  '.i-il.i\   interval. 


iise.  whilom  special  coaching  or  conscious  effort  to  improve, 
facilitates  the  report.  In  her  work  it  will  be  noted  that  the 
tendency  to  oath  and  warranted  tendency  to  oath  are  both  par 
ticularly  improved,  while  there  is  appreciable  improvement  in 

the  other  coefficients,  save  assurance  and  assured  accuracy.  On 
the  other  hand,  some  doubt  is  cast  upon  generalizations  from 
Miss  Borst's  work  by  the  reports  made  by  Baade  and  Lipmann 
for  the  Commission  of  the  Institute  for  Applied  Psychology  ap- 
pointed especially  to  investigate  this  problem  of  the  educability 


40    [406J  DESCRIPTION    AND   REPORT 

of  report.  Baade  shows  that  with  regard  to  reports  made  upon 
verbal  statements  (quotations)  the  flf's  (196  girls,  aged  12-13 
years)  showed  no  demonstrable  improvement,  either  as  a  result 
of  the  threefold  repetition  of  each  experiment  (physical  labo- 
ratory demonstrations)  or  as  a  result  of  the  succession  of  three 
different  experiments.  There  was  an  influence  of  earlier  upon 
later  experiments,  but  this  influence  was  sometimes  favorable 
and  sometimes  unfavorable.  Lipmann,  who  scored  the  estimates 
of  duration  and  size,  found,  on  the  whole,  some  improvement  in 
these  estimates  due  to  the  succession  of  experiments,  but  only  a 
very  slight  improvement  due  to  the  repetition  of  given  experi- 
ments. 

Other  experimenters  have  reported  results  more  nearly  in 
accord  with  Miss  Borst's  conclusions.  Breukink,  for  instance, 
found  that  if  S'a  are  allowed  to  see  the  picture  after  reporting, 
the  practise  increases  fidelity  of  report,  especially  in  the  deposi- 
tion and  in  resistance  to  suggestive  questions.  Again,  the  very 
interesting  Methodc  der  Entscheidungs-  und  Bestimimgsfragen 
(questions  in  form  of :  "Do  you  know  thus  and  so?"  and  "What 
is  thus  and  so?"  respectively)  has  led  Franken  to  declare  that 
such  training  as  this  method  induces,  causes  an  improved  cau- 
tiousness in  asserting  positive  knowledge. 

Other  experiments  by  Marie  Durr-Borst  (1906)  indicate  that 
improvement  in  the  capacity  of  children  may  be  best  secured  by 
appeal  to  zeal,  interest,  enthusiasm  and  desire  for  improvement, 
whereas  more  formal  training  of  an  intellectual  type— sugges- 
tions for  systematic  observation,  specific  training  in  sense-per- 
ception, etc. — is  much  less  effective. 

REFERENCES 

A.  The  most  important  single  source  is  Stern's  Beitriige  zur  Psychol- 
ogic der  lussage,  Leipzig,  1903-6.  Lack  of  space  forbids  the  itemizing  of 
the  numerous  titles:  besides  extended  reviews,  communications,  reports 
of  lectures,  etc.,  this  periodical  contains  important  articles  by  Stern.  Jaffa, 
Cramer.  Lobsien,  Lipmann,  Borst,  Bogdanoflf,  Rodenwaldt,  Oppenheim, 
Kosog.  Wendriner,  Oiinther.  Gottschalk,  and  others. 

B.  The  following  are  other  important  references.  See  especially  Nos. 
11.  21,  32,  34  and  35  for  bibliographies  and  general  reviews.  The  new 
literature  is  summarized  annually  in  PsBu. 

(1)  W.  Baade,  Aussage  iiber  physikalische  Demonstrationen.  (Mit 
besonderer  P.eriicksichtigung  der  Frage  der  Erziehbarkeit  der  Aussage.) 


i  ES'J   32  :  FIDELITY   OP  ttBPOB  i  [  407]    4  1 

l  Ahli.     Die  Methodik  der  Versuebe  and  die  tahalte  der  Textaus 
7.  \ngPs,  I  :    L911,  189-311. 

(2)  A*.  Baginsky,  Die  Klnderaussage  vor  Gericht.    Berlin,  1910.   Pp.  11. 

(3)  A.  Binet,  La  BUggestibillte.    Paris,  L900.    Pp.  391. 

ill     a.    Binet,   La   science  du   temolgnage,      VnPs,   11:    1904    (19 
L28-137. 

(5)  a.  Binet,  Psychologie  individuelle.  La  description  d'un  objet. 
\;,l's.  3:    1896  (  1897),  296-332. 

(fn  E.  G.  Boring,  Capacity  to  reporl  upon  moving  pictures  as  condl 
tioned  by  age  and  Bex.    To  appear  probably  in  PsRt  v. 

(7)  Marie  Borst  Recherches  experimentelles  sur  l'6ducabilit€  el  la 
fldelite  du  temolgnage.    ArPs(f),  3:  1904,  233  31  I. 

Marie  DUrr-Borst,  Die  Erziehung  der  Aussage  und  Anscbauung 
.1.  -  Schulkindes.    EPd,  3:    1906,  I  30. 

mi  m.  Borsl  el  E.  Claparede,  La  fidelite"  e(  l*6ducabilit6  du  temoig- 
uage.    Arch,  des  sciences  physiques  <t  naturelles,  April  7.  1904. 

i  lo)     II.  Breuklnk,  Deber  die  Erziehbarkeil  der  Aussage.    Z  VngP 
1909,  32  87. 

<ii)  ]•;.  Claparede,  Psychologie  du  temoignage.  (General  review.) 
I //'m/  i.  9:    1910,  228-232. 

(11a)     .7.  Colin   und   J.    Dieffenbacher,   Untersucbungen    iiber   Gescb- 
lechts-,  Alters-  und  Begabungs-Unterschiede  bei  Schiilern.    BeihefU 
ZAngPs,  2:    L911.     Pp.  213. 

i1l'i  K.  M.  Dallenbacb,  (a)  Tbe  relation  of  memory  error  to  time 
Interval.  PsR,  20:  1913,  ::.:::-::: :7.  (6)  The  effed  of  practise  upon  visual 
apprehension  in  school  children.    JEdPs,  5:  L914,  321  334,  387-404. 

(13)  J.  Dauber,  Die  Gleichformigkeit  des psychischen  Geschehens  und 
die  Zeugenaussagen.    FsPs,  1  :    1912,  83-131. 

Mil     e.  Dupree,  Le temoignage :  etude psychologique ei  m€dico-l< 
R<  r.  ,/.  d<  was  Sondes,  55  :    1910,  343-370. 

(15)     A.    Eranken,    («)    Ueber   die   Erziehbarkeit   der    Erinnerrungs- 
aussage  be]   Schulkindern.     ZPdPs,   12:    1911,   635-642.      (6)    Aw 
versuche  nach  der  Methode  der  Entscheidungs-  und  Bestimmungsfrage 
bel  Erwachsenen  und  Kindern.    ZAngPs,  6:    1912,  174-253. 

i  Kii  II.  B.  Gerland,  Zur  Frage  der  Zeugenaussage.  Arkr,  39:  1910, 
L16-119. 

(17)  II.  Gross,  Zur  Erage  der  Zeugenaussage.  ArKr,  36:  1910,  372 
382. 

(IS)  T.  Hegge,  Zur  Erage  der  Bewertung  von  Anssageu  bei  Bildver 
suchen.    ZAngPs,  6:    1912,  51-59. 

(19)  R.  Heindl,  Die  Zuverlassigkeit  von  Signalamentsaussage  bei 
s,  hulkindern.    ArKr,  13:    1909,  109-132. 

(20)  s.  Jaffa,  Bin  psychologiscbes  Experiment  im  kriminalistischen 
Seminar  der  CJniversitSI  Berlin.  Beitrage  zur  Psych,  der  Aussage,  1: 
1903,  79-99. 

(21)  0.  Lipmann,  Neuere  Arbeiten  zur  Psychologie  der  Aussage: 
Sammelbericht.  JPsN,  3:    1904,  245-249. 

(22)  <>.  Lipmann,  l>io  VVirkungder  Suggestivfragen.  ZPdPs,  8:  1906, 
89-96. 

c2:\)  O.  Lipmann,  Die  Wirkung  v.  Suggestivfragen.  ZAngPs,  1  :  1907- 
L908,  14-92,  382-415,  504  546;  2:  1908,  198-242.  Also  published  separately, 
Leipzig,  1909. 

(24)  O.  Lipmann,  Pedagogical  psychology  of  report.  JEdPs,2:  1911; 
253-261. 

ii'.-n     m.  Lobsien,  Ueber  Psyi-li.  <1«t  Aussage.    ZPdPs,  6:   L904,  L61  209 


42    [408]  DESCRIPTION    AND   REPORT 

(2G)  L.  Maurer,  Beobachtungen  liber  das  Anschauungsvermogen  der 
Kinder.    ZPdPs,  5 :  1903,  62-85. 

(27)  H.  MUnsterberg,  On  tbe  witness  stand.  N.  Y.,  1908.  Pp.  265. 
(Tbe  several  sections  of  tbis  book  bave  also  appeared  In  magazine  form, 
chiefly  in  McClure's  Magazine.) 

(28)  de  Plaezek,  Experimented  Untersuchungen  liber  die  Zeugen- 
anssagen  Scbwacbsinniger.    ArKr,  18 :   1904,  22-63. 

(29)  G.  Schultz,  Zur  Aussagepsychologie :  Prinzipielle  Erorterungeu 
im  Anschluss  an  ein  zweifacbes  Experiment.    ZAngPs,  7 :    1913,  547-574. 

(30)  C.  nnd  W.  Stern,  Erinnerung,  Aussage  und  Liige  in  der  ersten 
Kindbeit.    Leipzig,  1909.     Pp.  160. 

(31)  W.  Stern,  Zur  Psychologie  der  Aussage.  Experimentelle  Unter- 
suchungen tiber  Eriunerungstreue.  Zcits.  f.  <l.  ges.  Strafrechtwissen- 
schaft,  22:    1902.     (Also  published  separately,  Berlin,  1902.) 

(32)  W.  Stern,  (a)Literatur  zur  Psychologie  der  Aussage.  ZAngPs, 
1:  1907-8,  429-450.  (b)  Bibliographie  zur  Psychologie  der  Aussage,  1908- 
1910.  ZAngPs,  4:  1911,  378-381.  (c)  Psychologie" der  Aussage,  1911- 
1913.     ZAngPs,  7:    1913,  577-596. 

(33)  W.  Stern,  Abstracts  of  lectures  on  the  psychology  of  testimony. 
Am,lPs,  21 :   1910,  270-275. 

(34)  G.  M.  Whipple,  The  observer  as  reporter:  a  survey  of  tbe  'psy- 
chology of  testimony.'  PsBu,G:  1909,153-170.  (Also  annual  summaries 
of  literature  on  the  topic,  PsBu,  1910  on.) 

(35)  J.  11.  ^Yigmore,  Professor  Miinsterberg  and  the  psychology  of 
evidence.  Illinois  Law  Review,  3:  Feb.,  1909,  399-445  (with  bibliog- 
raphy of  127  titles). 

(36)  A.  Wreschner,  Zur  Psych,  d.  Aussage.  ArGcsPs,  1:  1905, 
148-183. 


CHAPTER    JX 

Teste  of  Association,  Learning,  and  Memory 

A  generation  ago,  the  members  of  the  'English  School'  of  psy- 
chologists exalted  'association'  as  a  fundamental  principle  or 
law  of  mind  comparable  in  its  scope  and  importance  with  the 
law  of  gravitation  in  the  material  world.    Whether  this  extreme 

position  lie  held  or  not,  it  must  be  admitted  that  the  more  com- 
plex phases  of  mental  activity  are  more  readily  understood  if 
certain  basic  conditions  of  mental  elaboration  are  posited,  par- 
ticularly the  conditions:  attention,  retention,  and  association. 
I  disregarding  the  first  of  these,  which  we  have  already  discussed, 
we  find  in. retention  the  sine  qua  non  of  the  development  of 
human  mental  activity,  and  we  find  constantly  at  work  in  the 
conscious  life  of  the  organism  a  tendency  for  the  establishment 
of  connections  between  its  concurrent  and  its  successive  psycho- 
physical activities.  In  so  far  as  the  conscious  organism  acquires 
new  capacities  for  response,  there  must  be  retention  and  organ- 
ization. Learning,  retaining,  recalling,  associating,  these  are 
terms  obviously  descriptive  of  a  series  of  related  activities,  and 
on  this  account,  tests  which  deal  with  them  are  here  assembled. 

Association  and  memory,  taken  together,  have  undoubtedly 
been  the  occasion  of  more  numerous  and  more  elaborate  experi- 
mental investigations  than  any  other  phase  of  mental  life. 
Learning,  in  the  narrower  sense,  has,  perhaps,  received  some- 
what less  attention,  though  of  late  the  importance  of  its  appli- 
cation to  pedagogical  problems  has  stimulated  work  upon  it. 

The  experimental  study  of  associative  activity  can  be,  and  has 
been,  undertaken  for  quite  varied  purposes,  c.  g.,  to  examine  the 
time  relations  of  mental  phenomena,  to  study  individual  differ 
ences  in  thought-processes,  as  conditioned  by  age,  sex,  training, 
physical  condition,  and  the  like,  to  analyze  the  diurnal  curve  of 
psychophysical  efficiency  (as  in  Kraepelin's  use  of  computa- 
tion), to  diagnose  mental  content,  and  even  to  reveal  obscure 

[409]  43 


44    [410]  ASSOCIATION,   LEARNING  AND   MEMORY 

mental  tendencies  and  motives  or  intentionally  withheld  infor- 
mation (diagnostic  association  tests).  Space  forbids  the  ex- 
ploitation of  all  the  tests  that  have  been  developed  in  these 
fields,  but  a  study  of  the  more  common  tests  of  learning,  associa- 
tion and  memory  that  have  been  selected  for  treatment  here  as 
being  most  applicable  to  the  experimental  study  of  school  chil- 
dren will  serve  to  indicate  the  lines  along  which  variant  meth- 
ods may  be  developed  and  employed. 

The  earlier  tests  in  this  chapter  investigate  the  nature  and 
efficiency  of  those  associative  connections  that  the  subject  has 
already  established  at  the  time  of  the  test,  either  when  the  asso- 
ciative processes  are  allowed  free  rein  (uncontrolled  associa- 
tion) or  wThen  they  are  placed  under  certain  restrictions  (con- 
trolled association).  The  tests  of  learning  that  follow  investi- 
gate the  subject's  capacity  to  establish  new  associative  connec- 
tions, under  relatively  novel  conditions.  The  memory  tests,  in 
a  somewThat  different  way,  investigate  his  retentive  capacity  or 
his  ability  to  reproduce  a  series  of  symbols  or  a  series  of  related 
ideas.  The  classification  of  tests  of  association,  learning  and 
memory  is,  of  course,  somewhat  rough;  it  is  difficult  to  draw 
sharp  distinctions  between  each  type  or  to  delimit  precisely  the 
mental  processes  that  are  brought  into  operation,  as  is  illus- 
trated, for  example,  in  the  obvious  overlapping  of  tests  of 
memory,  of  memory-span,  of  report,  of  range  of  attention  and 
range  of  apprehension. 

TEST   33 

Uncontrolled  association — continuous  method. — The  essence  of 
this  test  is  the  requirement  to  write  or  pronounce  an  extended 
series  of  wTords  not  in  the  form  of  sentences.  Our  interest  lies, 
first,  in  the  difference  of  facility  exhibited  by  different  $'s  in  the 
production  of  such  a  series  of  terms;  secondly,  in  the  nature  of 
the  terms  given  by  S's  of  different  sex,  age,  or  social  condition  ; 
and  thirdly,  in  the  nature  of  the  mental  processes  underlying  the 
word-naming  process. 

Cattell  and  Bryant  (4)  make  brief  mention  of  the  test;  Jas- 
trow  (0,  7),  and  later  Miss  Nevers  (10),  Miss  Calkins  (3),  Miss 


ii.si   ."..'I:   i   ^CONTROLLED  ASSOCIATION  lll|    45 

'rainier  ill  i  and  .M iss  Manchester  (8), employed  ii  for  thestudj 
of  the  community  of  ideas  of  men  and  women,  Flournoj  (5)  for 
the  study  of  the  effeel  of  environment,  present  and  immediately 
past,  upon  the  course  of  association,  and  Binet  (1)  I'm- 1  he  Btudy 
of  individual  differences  in  intellectual  processes.  In  a  modified 
form  (tesl  of  60  words  in  •">  min.)  i1  appears  in  the  Binet-Simon 
Scale  (Oh.  XI 11). 

Materials.  -Stop-watch.  Blank  forms  containing  numbered 
Bpaces  for  100  words.    [The  seconds-clock.] 

Method.— Give  8  these  instructions:  "When  I  say  •now,'  I 
want  you  i"  star!  in  with  some  word,  any  one  you  like,  and  keep 
nil  saying  words  as  fast  a%  you  <-<m  until  you  have  given  a  hun- 
dred different  words,  roumaj  giveanj  words  you  like,  bu1  they 
ninsl  not  be  in  sentences.     I  will  tell  yon  when  to  slop."     E  starts 

the  stop-watch  ;u  the  command  'now'  and  writes  on  the  prepared 
form  the  words  spoken  by  8.  With  mature  8's,  ii  may  be  pos- 
sible to  gel  nothing  more  than  scant  abbreviations  for  the  more 
rapid  portions  of  the  series,  imt  these  may  l»e  filled  out  subse- 
quently. The  points  at  which  8  makes  distinct  pauses  may  be 
Doted  on  the  form.  At  the  100th  word,  stop  the  watch  and  record 
the  time.  If  time  permits,  and  8  can  do  SO,  it  is  advisable  at 
once  to  go  over  his  series,  not  only  to  till  out  the  list  of  terms. 
Imt  also  to  make  marginal  notes  of  all  the  intermediate  links  and 
subsidiary  associative  processes  that  he  can  recall. 

Variations  of  Method. —  (1)  For  group  tests,  E  should  pro- 
vide each  S  with  a  blank.  He  may  allow  )!  min.  tor  writing,  and 
rate  speed  in  terms  of  number  of  words  written  (method  fol- 
lowed by  Pyle,  10),  or  each  &  may  record  his  own  time  for 
writ  iug  100  words  by  the  aid  of  the  seconds-clock  for  group  tests. 
The  latter  procedure  is  recommended  rather  than  the  former. 
When  x  does  the  writing,  the  method  resembles  that  of  the  users 
of  it  discussed  below,  hut  the  standard  method  of  oral  naming 
is  best. 

(2)  Instruct  8  to  keep  his  eyes  closed  during  the  test.  This 
variant  is  to  he  preferred  for  individual  testing,  at  least  with 
adults;  its  effect  is  commonly  to  reduce  the  speed  of  naming  and 
to  lessen  the  number  of  terms  suggested  by  objects  visible  in  the 
room  where  the  test  is  administered. 


46    [412]  ASSOCIATION,   LEARNING  AND   MEMORY 

(3)  Vary  the  test  by  demanding  short  lists,  say  of  20  words 
each,  referring  to  the  several  categories  indicated  in  the  table 
which  follows,  e.  g.,  ''Name  words  pertaining  to  clothing." 
''Name  abstract  terms."  "Name  adjectives,"  etc.  Note  the  time 
needed  for  each  such  list. 

(4)  E  may  omit  the  instruction  to  write  or  to  speak  as  rap- 
idly as  possible,  and  allow  8  to  work  at  his  leisure.  This  method, 
which  was  followed  by  Miss  Nevers,  is  perhaps  more  satisfactory 
for  the  subsequent  qualitative  report  upon  the  series,  but  de- 
prives the  test  of  whatever  quantitative  merits  it  possesses,  be- 
sides tending  to  yield  results  of  a  distinctly  different  nature  that 
are  not  comparable  with  those  otherwise  obtained. 

(5)  When  working  with  younger  8%  E  may  with  advantage 
limit  the  length  of  the  series.  Thus,  Flournoy  demanded  but  10 
words,  while  Binet  recorded  the  time  for  three  series  of  20  words 
each,  and  occupied  the  intervals  in  reviewing  with  8  the  terms 
of  the  preceding  series.  This  method  is  less  fatiguing,  and  en- 
ables immature  $'s  to  give  a  more  satisfactory  account  of  their 
associative  connections,  but  it  does  not  test  #'s  capacity  as 
rigorously  as  the  longer  list.  . 

(6)  E  may  secure  a  very  limited  measure  of  uniformity  in 
the  earlier  portion  of  the  series  by  starting  all  $'s  from  the  same 
word.  For  this,  the  words  quick  and  play  are  recommended. 
Here  it  is  of  interest  to  observe  the  lines  of  divergence  in  asso- 
ciation taken  by  different  S's. 

(7)  Another  variation  is  that  of  Flournoy,  who,  in  addition 
to  the  word  test,  gave  45  $'s  instructions  to  make  10  drawings 
of  any  sort. 

Treatment  of  Data. — In  the  standard  form  of  test,  S's  speed 
is  indicated  directly  by  his  time  for  naming  100  words.  In  the 
group  test,  it  is  customary,  similarly,  to  rate  S's  speed  in  terms 
of  words  written  in  3  min.  It  is  not  possible,  however,  to  regard 
the  times  obtained  from  these  two  forms  of  the  test  as  inter- 
changeable, since  the  second  form  includes  writing  and  this,  as 
is  demonstrated  below,  tends,  even  in  the  case  of  mature  8%  to 
slow  the  rate  of  performance.  In  so  far,  too,  as  &'s  differ  in  their 
speed  of  writing,  this  fact  enters  as  an  unavoidable  disturbing 
factor  in  the  group  test. 


TEST  33  I    INCUNTHULLliD  AS80C1ATI0>> 


413]   47 


For  qualitative  comparison  of  the  lists,  E  may,  by  inspection, 
supplemented  by  >S"s  expln nation,  catalog  the  words,  either  in 
ili«-  7  categories  used  by  Hind,  or  in  the  2.~>  categories  used  by 
Jastrow,  .Miss  Nfeversand  .Miss  Manchester.  Both,  classifications 
are  embodied  in  the  results  below. 

Results. —  (1)  Some  idea  of  the  relation  between  perform- 
ance in  the  group  test  (words  written  in  3  min.)  and  age  <m<l 
x< . -  in  normal  n'n  may  be  secured  from  the  averages  published 
by  J'\  lc  for  a  limited  number  of  cases  and  under  less  precise  in- 
si  ructions  than  those  above  recommended.  These  results  are  set 
forth  in  Table  54,  where  it  will  be  observed  that  on  the  whole 
the  number  of  words  increases  with  age  year  by  year,  and  that 
girls  a(  nearly  every  age  somewhat  excel  boys  in  their  scores. 


TABLE    54 
Words  Written  in  Three  Minutes  by  'Normal  Children  {Pyh  I 


B 


9 


10 


11 


12 


i:( 


14       15    |   16 


i: 


18     ADULT 


Male____  Cases 33    60    06    60    77    80    57    38    30    10    21      ill 

Male Aver 23.0  20.9  29.7  33.3  34.2  33.9  33.3  40.0  33.3  42.8  48.9  42.2 

Male— .  Av.  Dev 7.5   7.0  9.0  11.4  10.9  14.6  13.2  14.8  14.6  12.3  16.G   13.8 

Pem Cases 37    82    88    65    90    66   |61   |46   |46    38    29   I  86 

Fern Aver 23.7  31.0  32.2  36.8  36.6  38.3  39.1 40.2  40.9  41.0  47.1  38.3 

Fern Av.  Dev 8.2  8.9  10.8  12.1 15.4  16.8  12.9  13.8  14.1 14.0  13.9  13.1 

III  II       I       !       I       , 


(2)  In  tests  of  college  students  the  average  time  for  writiug 
100  words  ranges  between  5  and  0  min.  Jastrow  reports  an 
average  of  130  sec.  for  oral  and  308  sec.  for  written  lists  of  this 
length.  Since  writing  an  equal  number  of  words  from  dictation 
took  212  sec,  he  concludes  that  about  1.14  sec.  was  used,  ou  the 
average,  in  thinking  the  association  between  one  word  and  the 
next. 

(3)  Table  55,  derived  from  Wallin's  studies  of  mentally  de- 
fective epileptics  (12),  shows  that  the  test  of  uncontrolled  asso- 
ciation (here  the  number  of  words  spoken  in  3  min.  under  cer- 
tain special  instructions  necessitated  by  the  nature  of  the  S'b) 
is  of  some  value  for  mental  classification,  since  the  average  re- 


IS       III  ASSOCIATION,  LEARNING  AND  MfiMORI 

suits  show  a  steady  increase  with  increase  in  mental  age 
(Binet-Simon  diagnosis)  when  due  allowance  is  made  for  the 
small  number  of  cases  tested  in  certain  ages. 


TABLE    55 
Words  Uttered  in  Three  Minutes  by  Epileptics  {Wallin) 


Binet-Simon  Age    VI 

VII 

VIII 

IX 

X 

XI 

XII 

XIII 

Average  Words  Spoken-  16.0 

25.5     21.5 

33.4 

43.6 

51.3 

59.9 

65.0 

(4)  Inspection  of  the  lists  printed  both  by  Jastrow  and  by 
Binet  shows  that  flf's  follow  what  might  be  termed  a  series  of 
themes:  a  number  of  terms  are  written,  all  of  which  cluster 
about  a  common  central  idea ;  through  one  of  these  terms  access 
is  given  to  a  new  central  idea,  which  in  turn  becomes  a  theme 
for  the  next  series  of  terms.  Thus,  in  the  series  hand,  face,  Up, 
chest,  knees,  calf,  coiv,  horse,  pig,  etc.,  the  transition  from  the 
parts-of-the-body  theme  to  the  animal  theme  is  effected  by  the 
common  term  calf. 

(5)  In  some  8%  the  controlling  theme  is  an  auditory  se- 
quence, which  occasions  long  series  of  rimed  or  alliterative 
terms,  c.  g.,  run,  pun,  fun,  etc.,  or  hen,  hand,  head,  harp,  etc. 

(6)  In  this  test,  the  most  common  words,  i.  e.,  those  most 
easily  got  at,  or  those  that  lie,  as  it  were,  on  the  surface,  are 
given  first.  After  these  are  delivered,  the  task  grows  more  diffi- 
cult; deeper  and  more  remote-lying  terms  must  be  actively 
sought  for.  Closely  related  to  this  is  the  fact  that,  at  least  in 
the  lists  of  younger  8%  practically  all  the  terms  are  nouns.1 
This  is  particularly  the  case  in  the  short  series  conducted  by 
Binet,  so  that,  as  he  remarks,  the  test,  as  he  conducted  it,  is 
virtually  equivalent  to  a  request  to  write  20  common  nouns. 

(7)  In  view  of  the  vast  number  of  words  available,  it  is  at 
first  surprising  to  note  the  degree  of  community  present  in  lists 


'Children  often  interpret  the  instructions  to  mean  that  only  nouns  are 
wanted.  If  E  stops  to  explain  that  other  parts  of  speech  are  permissible, 
the  result  is  sometimes  more  confusing  yet,  as  they  may  then  seek  to  name 
some  of  every  part  of  speech. 


1 1  m  :;:: ;  i  S(  on  drolled  asso<  i  \  \  [on         I  U5 

of  100  terms  given  i>.\  ;i  limited  Dumber  of  persons.  Thus,  Jas 
trow  found  that  in  50  lists  (5000  words),  onrj  _<>•_' l  words  were 
different,  only  L266  words  occurred  but  once,  while  the  i(">  most 

frequent  words  made  ap  three-tenths  of  the  whole  Dumber. 

These  most  frequent  words  are,  as  lus  just  been  snid.  Dames 
of  common  objects  :  in  Jastrow's  50  lists,  the  following  were  the 
most  frequently  used  words:  book  i  10),  lvorse  (37),  girl  (35), 
man  (34),  boy  (33),  ta&Ze  (30);  then  follow  chair,  tree,  cow, 
paper,  dress,  etc.,  in  somewhat  lesser  frequency 

(8)  For  the  classification  of  the  words  given  by  20  12-year- 
old  pupils,  Binet  found  seven  categories  adequate,  viz.:  (a) 
names  of  objects  in  the  loom  where  the  test  was  held,  i  It)  parts 
of  the  person  or  doilies,  i  c)  objects  or  persons  in  the  school,  i  d  I 
objects  recalled  from  the  home,  (c)  objects  seen  in  the  streets 
i  horse,  tree),  (f)  objects  seen  in  fields  or  on  country  excursions, 
(g)  •  unclassified  nouns.  Here  there  is  no  place  for  abstract 
terms,  many  of  which  were  found  in  series  given  by  American 
pupils  in  Jastrow's  tests.  Jastrow's  own  classification  is  indi- 
cated in  Table  48,  where  it  will  be  seen  that  his  25  categories 
are  much  more  elaborate  and  extended  than  those  employed  by 
Binet. 

(9)  Dc/k  >irf<  ucc  on  sex.  The  question  as  to  sex  difference 
in  spontaneous  trains  of  ideas  such  as  are  evoked  in  this  test  has 
been  answered  differently  by  the  tests  conducted  at  different 
institutions.  The  comparison  of  Wisconsin  men  and  Wisconsin 
women  was  made  by  Jastrow,  the  1894  test  of  Wellesley  women 
by  Miss  Nevers  and  with  no  instruction  as  to  speed,  the  1890 
test  of  Wellesley  women  by  -Miss  Calkins  but  with  the  same  iu- 
st  ructions  as  those  of  Jastrow,  the  test  of  75  men  and  75  women 
at  the  University  of  California  in  1905  by  Miss  Manchester  after 
Jastrow's  method.  The  categories  of  particular  interest  arc 
those  printed  in  italics.  .Jastrow's  results  in  this  and  other  tests 
led  him  to  believe  that  "women  repeat  one  another's  words  much 
more  than  the  men."  He  found  that  "the  class  to  which  women 
contribute  most  largely  is  that  of  articles  of  dress,  one  word  in 
every  eleven  belonging  to  this  class.  The  inference  from  this 
that  dress  is  the  predominant  category  of  the  feminine  (or  of  the 


50    [410]  ASSOCIATION;    LEARNING    AND    MEMORY 

privy  feminine)  mind  is  valid  with  proper  reservations."  Since 
the  women  exceed  the  men  in  the  enumeration  also  of  foods, 
amusements,  arts,  and  educational  matters,  but  fall  below  them 
in  naming  implements  and  utensils,  professions,  and  especially 
in  abstract  terms,  Jastrow  concludes,  "that  the  feminine  traits 
revealed  in  this  study  are  an  attention  to  the  immediate  sur- 
roundings, to  the  finished  product,  to  the  ornamental,  the  indi- 
vidual, and  the  concrete,  while  the  masculine  preference  is  for 
the  more  remote,  the  constructive,  the  useful,  the  general,  and 
the  abstract"  (6 ;  pp.  564-5) .  Most  of  these  conclusions  are  flatly 
opposed  by  the  Wellesley  results  of  1894,  but  the  employment  of 
Jastrows'  methods  in  the  189G  test  produced  less  marked  diver- 
gencies. It  is  particularly  to  be  noted  that  writing  at  a  faster 
rate  (1896  test)  caused  a  marked  decrease  in  the  number  of  ab- 
stract terms,  and  brought  the  terms  relating  to  'interior  furnish- 
ings' up  even  beyond  those  of  the  Wisconsin  women ;  on  the  other 
hand,  the  frequency  of  terms  for  'wearing  apparel'  was  not 
affected  by  this  change  in  method. 

The  three  sets  of  25  lists  each  (25  men  and  25  women)  pro- 
cured by  Miss  Manchester  at  California  show  complete  agree- 
ment with  Jastrow's  results  in  the  following  aspects-  men  lead 
in  naming  (1)  verbs,  (2)  implements  and  utensils,  (3)  occupa 
tions;  women  lead  in  naming  (1)  wearing  apparel,  (2)  build- 
ings and  building  materials,2  (3)  interior  furnishings,  (4)  edu- 
cational terms,  (5)  arts,  and  (6)  amusements.  Miss  Manchester 
generalizes  these  differences  as  follows:  (1)  "The  dynamic 
aspect  of  objects  is  more  attractive  to  men,  while  the  static  or 
completed  aspect  appeals  more  to  women."  (2)  "Time  as  a 
factor  enters  more  largely  into  the  surface  ideas  of  men ;  space 
is  more  often  a  prominent  feature  of  the  surface  ideas  of 
women."  (3)  "Men  are  interested  in  far-reaching  relations  ex- 
isting between  things;  women  give  more  attention  to  the  minute 
analysis  of  things  themselves."  (4)  "The  range  of  the  surface 
ideas  of  men,  as  a  group,  is  slightly  greater  than  that  of  women." 


2In  explanation  of  this  seemingly  unusual  superiority  of  the  women  it 
should  be  said  that  the  things  named  are  not  distinctive  building  mate- 
rials or  operations,  like  mortar,  cement,  mortising,  etc.,  but  such  common 
terms  as  floor,  door,  gate,  church,  etc. 


TEST  33  :  UNCONTROLLED  ASSOCIATION 


4171    51 


TABLE    50 

Distribution  of  Terms  In  'Uncontrolled'  Association    [Jasi  ov>,   Vevers, 
Culklns,  Manchester) 

(Each  column  represents  25  lists  of  100  words  each.    Those  from  Cali- 
fornia mi  based  upon  7.7  lists  reduced  to  the  same  basis.) 


CATEGORIES 


< 

4 

>•-- 

z 
to 
z 

KM 

z 

m  Z 

zu 

o  s 

z 

09 

2z 

Z   7 

If 

--/ 

J  — 

M  Z 

o  o 
2* 

ii 

J  s 

-  0 

S 

•£ 

o 

o 

s  * 

*  2, 

-•  s 

a  o 


1.  Animal  kingdom 

l'.  Wearing  apparel  and  fabrics-  129 

3.  Proper  names 194 

1.  Verbs 197 

5.  Implements  and  utensils 169 

6.  Interior  furnishings 89 

7.  Adjectives 177 

8.  Foods 53 

9.  Vegetable   kingdom 121 

10.  Abstract   terms 131 

11.  Buildings  and  building  ma- 

terials   !  105 

12.  Parts  of  body 101 

13.  Miscellaneous 91 

14.  Geographical  and  landscape 

features 97 

15.  Mineral  kingdom 74 


16.  Meteorological    and    astro- 

nomical    85 

17.  Stationery ;  60 

18.  Occupations  and  callings.—  71 

19.  Conveyances !  62 

20.  Educational  I  34 

21.  Other  parts  of  speech ;  96 

22.  Arts  33 

23.  Amusements 30 

24.  Mercantile  terms 30 

25.  Kinship 17 


178 
224 
153 
134 
121 

190 
102 
179 
110 
97 


80 
96 


76 
86 
47 
52 
76 

5 
61 
53 
29 
32 


214 

82 

84 

302 

115 


187 
118 

92 
258 

82 


90  119 

208  266 

81  ,     78 

83  90 

113  101 


102 
96 


86 
58 
60 
44 
59 

108 

59 

25 

13 

9 


114 
58 


87 
54 
35 
50 
74 


146 

97 

81 

279 

139 

212 
300 
88 
101 
101 


117       121       140        86 

105        91    i     62        66 

97       197       180       123 


70 
30 


109 
69 
24 
19 

102 


103  164 

79  17 

45  17 

14  18 

12  |     42 


223 
96 
141 
114 
132 

84 

234 

56 

91 

280 


106 

34 

162 

142 
54 


26 
26 
33 
79 
167 

41 
44 
102 
15 
18 


Burt  and  Moore  repeated  Jastrow's  test  both  with  children 
and  adults  of  both  sexes,  with  results  that  roughly  confirm  Jas- 
trow's. ''The  females  are  more  personal  and  subjective  in  their 
interests;  the  males  are  more  impersonal  and  objective.     .     .     . 


52     [418]  ASSOCIATION,    LEARNING    AND    MEMOKY 

Women  alter  their  themes  and  topics  far  more  frequently  than 
men;  men,  on  the  other  hand,  show  a  greater  variety  of  associa- 
tive connections  between  one  idea  and  another  within  the  same 
theme.  The  course  of  ideas  is  also  more  frequently  disturbed 
in  women  by  the  various  signs  of  'complexes'  (systems  of  asso- 
ciated ideas  characterized  by  strong  emotional  colorings) ." 

These  discrepancies  raise  the  issue,  as  Miss  Tanner  has 
pointed  out,  whether  this  test  can  be  expected  to  reveal  funda- 
mental native  differences  in  mental  constitution  of  the  two  sexes, 
or  whether  it  reveals  merely  acquired  traits,  social  traditions, 
individual  habits,  educational  and  other  environmental  influ- 
ences. The  lists  written  by  college  students  might  be  expected, 
for  example,  to  be  considerably  affected  by  their  recent  occupa- 
tions, courses  of  study  pursued  at  the  time,  etc. 

The  more  direct  comparison  of  the  speed  of  the  two  sexes  in 
naming  terms  of  different  kinds  which  we  have  suggested  (Vari- 
ation of  Method,  3)  does  not  appear  to  have  been  attempted  by 
any  of  these  investigators. 

(10)  This  influence  of  environment  upon  the  lists  of  associa- 
tions is  indicated  particularly  in  Flournoy's  brief  tests  (10 
words  and  10  drawings),  the  results  of  which  are  summarized  in 
Table  57. 

TABLE    57 

Influences  that  Affect  'Uncontrolled'  Series  of  Words  or  Draivings 

(Floumoy) 


DRAWINGS 

WORDS 

Traced  to  present  surroundings       _      __    _  _ 

Per  cent. 

13.8 
1.9 

Per  cent. 
29  0 

Traced  to  the  immediate  past 

82 

Due  to  the  milieu  _ 

15.7 
2.4 

37  2 

Traced  to  recent  personal  experiences 

3Q- 

Traced  to  personal  habits              _    _ 

39.2               9.2 

Expressing  individuality              _    _ 

41.6 
42.7 

13.1 

Unexplained 

49  7 

II.  >i    33a:   l  NCONTROLLED  .\»o.  LATION  |  I  l'->  |    •"»:'. 

REFERENCES 

(1)  A.  Binet,  L'etude  experimentale  de  1'lntelligence.  Paris,  1903. 
Pp.  309.    Espe<  ially  chs.  11  to  iv, 

(2)  C.  Burl  and  R.  O.  Moore,  The  mental  differences  between  the 
Bexes.    JEPd,  i  :    1912,  273  284,  355-38 

(3)  Mary  w.  Calkins,  Community  of  Ideas  of  men  and  women.  P  R 
3:    L89G, 

(it  j.  McK.  Cat  tell  and  Sophie  Bryant,  Mental  association  Investi- 
gated by  experinieut.     Mind,  14:    1889,230-250. 

(5)  Tli.  Flournoy,  De  I'actlondu  milieu  but  I'ideatlon.  AnPs,  1  :  1894 
I  1895),  180-190. 

(6)  J.  Jastrow,  A  studj  In  mental  statistics.  Veto  Review,  5 :  1891, 
559  5 

iTi  .7.  Jastrow,  Community  of  Ideas  of  men  and  women.  PsR,  3: 
L890,  08  71.   130  I. 

(8)  Genevieve  S.  Manchester,  Experiments  on  the  unreflective  Ideas 
of  men  and  women.    PsR,  12:   1905,  50-66. 

(9)  Cordelia  Nevers,  i>r.  Jastrow  on  community  of  Ideas  of  men  and 
w< m.    PsR,  -  :    L895,  :  ;•  >.*l-T. 

(10)  VV.  II.  Pyle,  The  examination  of  school  children.  New  York. 
1913.    Pp.  70,  especially  24-27. 

i  1 1  i  Amy  Tanner,  The  community  of  ideas  of  nun  and  women.  /J.sA'. 
3:    L896,  548-550. 

(12)  J.  E.  \Y.  Wallin,  Experimental  studies  of  mental  defectives. 
EdPsMon,  No.  7.  Baltimore,  1912.    Pp.  155. 


TEST   33A 

Uncontrolled  association — discrete  method  (Kent-Rosanoff 
test). — This  tes1  resembles  the  preceding  one  in  that  it  deals 
with  association  of  the  free,  unrestricted  or  uncontrolled  type, 
but  it  differs  from  it  in  thai  8  is  called  upon  to  respond  with  a 
single  term  only  to  each  of  a  scries  of  words  presented  by  E. 
This  form  of  response  has  been,  of  course,  the  objecl  of  an  ex- 
traordinary amount  of  investigation,  particularly  with  refer- 
ence i"  ils  time-relations.  But  in  the  special  arrangement  of 
the  tesl  developed  by  Kent  and  Rosanoff  no  attempt  is  made  to 
measure  the  time-relations,  and  the  search  for  devices  for  the 
logical  classification  of  the  responses  (a  decidedly  prominent 
feature  of  many  Laboratory  and  clinical  studies  in  association) 
is  limited  to  a  simple  empirical  sorting  of  them  into  'common,5 
'doubtful,'  and  'individual'  responses,  on  the  basis  of  prepared 
frequency  tables. 

Tabulated   lists  of  the   frequency   with   which  different    re 
sponses  are  made  to  the  stimuli  presented  in  association   tests 


54    [420]  ASSOCIATION,    LEARNING    AND    MEMORY 

were  constructed  by  Cattell  and  Bryant  (4)  as  early  as  1889,  and 
since  then  have  been  developed  to  some  extent  by  Gertrud  Sal- 
ing  (20)  in  1908,  and  by  Keinhold  (16)  in  1910,  while  Bovet 
(1)  has  outlined  several  methods  by  which  such  tables  might 
be  handled  in  figuring  a  'coefficient  of  banality.'  Nevertheless, 
the  frequency  tables  published  by  Grace  Kent  and  A.  J. 
Rosanoff  (10)  in  1910,  taken  in  conjunction  with  the  supple- 
mentary reports  upon  their  applicability  made  by  Rosanoff 
with  the  assistance  of  Eastman  (5)  in  1912  and  of  Isabel 
Rosanoff  (18)  in  1913  and  the  recent  study  by  Miss  Otis  (15), 
constitute  so  important  and  well-standardized  a  development 
of  the  idea  of  measuring  commonplaceness,  or  normality  of  re- 
sponse by  means  of  empirical  tables  of  distribution,  as  to  war- 
rant the  introduction  of  their  test  as  a  special  and  specific 
method  of  testing  association. 

Whether  the  Kent-Rosanoff  test  merits  the  rather  extrava- 
gant encomiums  that  have  been  awarded  it  by  some  writers1 
appears  to  me  extremely  doubtful;  it  has  certainly  discarded 
whatever  advantages  might  be  secured  by  resort  to  introspec- 
tion and  to  the  making  of  time  measurements;  it  sets  up  an 
arbitrary  standard  of  normality,  valid  at  best  only  in  the  gross 
and  when  the  test  is  conducted  by  certain  fixed  and  probably 
far  from  ideal  conditions  for  exploring  individuality  in  mental 
connections. 

Materials. — Prepared  forms  comprising  a  printed  list  of 
100  stimulus  words2  with  spaces  for  recording  responses,  their 
times  and  their  indexes.  The  Kent-Rosanoff  frequency  tables. 
[Stop-watch.] 


1Wood\vortb  and  Wells  (25),  for  example,  talk  of  the  free  association 
test  as  having  achieved,  and  being  likely  to  .retain,  a  place  "in  the  fore- 
most rank  among  the  methods  of  individual  psychology,"  and  assert  that 
the  form  of  it  developed  by  Kent  and  Rosanoff  gives  "perhaps  the  best 
objective  correlate  of  temperament  at  present  to  hand,"  and  that  it  has 
"established  a  definite  standard  of  normality" — statements  that  are  hard 
to  understand  in  the  light  of  the  results  established  to  date. 

2Sixty-slx  of  these  terms  are  taken  from  the  series  published  by  Sommer 
in  his  Diagnostlfc  der  GeistesJcrankheiten;  the  remainder  have  been  se- 
lected on  the  basis  of  preliminary  experimentation  in  such  a  manner  as 
to  cover  a  variety  of  situations  without  being  especially  liable  to  call  up 
personal  experiences. 


test  33a:  uncontrolled  association*         [421]   55 

Method. — Seat  8  in  a  room  free  from  distracting  influences 
and  with  his  hack  to  E.  Instruct  him  as  follows:  ''I  am  going 
to  read  to  you,  one  at  a  time,  a  series  of  100  words.  Just  be- 
fore each  word  I  shall  call  out  'ready.'  As  soon  as  von  hear 
the  word  that  follows  the  'ready'  signal,  you  arc  to  respond  by 
saying  the  tirst  word  that  conies  to  your  mind  other  than  the 
word  that  I  have  just  spoken.  Your  response  must  be  a  single 
word,  and  you  must  say  it  just  as  quickly  as  you  can." 

If  s.  despite  these  instructions,  repeats  the  stimulus  word, 
he  is  cautioned  not  to  do  so,  and  the  same  stimulus  is  given 
again  after  several  other  stimuli  have  been  used.  If  he  con- 
tinues to  repeat  the  stimulus  word  during  some  '2~>  trials,  E 
should  forego  further  attempts  to  prevent  this  form  of  re- 
sponse. If  S  responds  by  a  sentence  or  phrase,  a  compound 
word  or  a  grammatical  variation  of  the  stimulus-word,  he  is 
similarly  warned  of  this  infringement  of  the  instructions, 
and  the  stimulus  words  are  similarly  repeated  later  in  the  test- 
ing. In  any  event,  the  original  response  as  well  as  the  subse- 
quent one  had  best  be  noted  in  the  record,  though  the  second 
ones  should  be  used  in  computing  the  results.3 

If  any  response  seems  incoherent,  devoid  of  any  apparent 
connection  with  the  stimulus,  ask  S  why  he  responded  as  he 
did,  and  make  a  note  of  his  explanation. 

As  the  test  is  somewhat  wearisome  with  children,  it  is  ad- 
visable to  introduce  a  rest-pause  of  a  minute  or  so  after  the 
50th  word,  or  even  after  the  25th,  50th  and  75th  words. 

Variations  of  Method. —  (1)  Use  the  stop-watch  to  measure 
the  time  elapsing  between  the  stimulus  and  the  response.  Start 
the  watch  just  as  the  stimulus  is  uttered ;  stop  it  when  &  utters 
his  response;  record  the  time  in  tenths  of  a  second.  This  varia- 
tion of  method  is  strongly  advised,  despite  the  reasons  advanced 
by  Kent  and  Rosanoff  for  neglecting  the  measurement  of  the 
association  time.  The  experience  of  other  users  of  the  Kent- 
Rosanoff  test  shows  that  the  times  are  frequently  valuable  ad- 
juncts in  diagnosis.    E  must  remember,  of  course,  that  the  time 


'With  (mite  young  children,  say  4  or  6  years  old.  it  will  be  impossible 
to  follow  these  Instructions  precisely.  Thus  the  Rosanoffs  (18)  were 
obliged  in  such  cases  to  permit  responses  of  a  sentence  form  and  to  take 
the  main  word  in  the  sentence  as  the  desired  single  word 


56    [422]  ASSOCIATION,    LEARNING    AND    MEMORY 

does  not  always  measure  the  speed  of  the  association  that  is 
recorded,  since  between  stimulus  and  response  more  than  one 
mental  process  may  intervene  which  is  not  reported  by  S  and 
which  may  be  quite  unrevealed  in  the  word  he  utters. 

(2)  Make  the  test  without  instructions  for  speed,  but  with 
explicit  instructions  to  adopt  a  quiet,  leisurely  attitude  in 
which  the  association  is  allowed  to  develop  in  whatever  way  it 
may.  This  method  of  conducting  the  association  test  yields 
responses  that  often  differ  widely  from  those  obtained  under 
instructions  for  speed,  and  it  must  be  understood  that  the 
coefficients  obtained  from  the  frequency  tables  then  possess  no 
necessary  correspondence  with  those  obtained  when  the  stand- 
ard method  is  followed. 

(3)  Follow  the  suggestions  just  cited  in  Variation  2,  with 
the  additional  proviso  that  $  may  respond  by  a  phrase  or  com- 
pound word  in  case  that  be  the  first  verbal  association  that 
rises  in  his  mind.  It  is  instructive  to  compare  the  responses 
obtained  under  this  Aufgabe  with  those  obtained  by  the  stand- 
ard method.  Here,  again,  the  calculated  coefficients  are  not 
directly  comparable  with  those  established  by  Kosanoff  with  his 
tables  and  his  instructions,  though  the  method  is,  in  the  author's 
opinion,  a  better  one  for  determining  the  degree  of  individuality 
in  associative  tendencies. 

Treatment  of  Data. — To  determine  the  coefficient  of  com- 
monplaceness  compare  the  responses  for  each  one  of  the  100 
terms  with  the  responses  listed  in  the  Kent-Rosanoff  frequency 
tables;  record  the  several  'index-values,'  then  average  them  to 
obtain  the  coefficient.  Thus,  if  to  table  S  responds  chair,  the 
index  is  recorded  as  267,  because  267  of  the  1000  persons  tested 
by  Kent  and  Rosanoff  gave  this  response :  if  the  association  be 
table-hard,  its  index  is  9;  if  it  be  table-black,  the  index  is  0, 
because  no  one  of  the  1000  persons  chanced  to  give  that  re- 
sponse. The  association  table-black  and  any  other  association 
which  is  not  found  in  the  frequency  tables  is  termed  an  indi- 
vidual response,  while  any  association  found  in  the  tables, 
whatever  its  index  may  be,  is  termed  a  common  response.  Any 
response  that  is  a  grammatical  variant  of  a  term  listed  in  the 
tables  is  classed  as  a  doubtful  response,  e.  g.,  the  association 


cbst33a:  uncontbollbd  association        [423]  57 

table-inky  is  doubtful  since  only  table-ink  is  found  in  the  list 

for  that  stimulus  word. 

The  percentage  of  common,  individual  and  doubtful  re 
spouses  are  then  computed,  if  no  response  is  obtained  (e.  .</.. 
"nothing,"  "don't  know"),  E  may  find  it  aecessary  to  add  a 
fourth  class  ("failures")   to  the  three  classes  just  mentioned. 

The  term  common  response  is  not  entirely  synonymous  with 
the  term  normal  response,  because,  obviously,  the  responses 
gathered  from  LOOO  persons  dg  not  exhaust  the  possibilities  of 
perfectly  'natural'  associations.  To  meet  this  difficulty  Kent 
and  Rosanoff  have  given  in  their  appendix  statements  that  cover 
in  a  general  way  the  responses  that  are  to  be  deemed  'normal' 
for  each  of  the  LOO  stimulus  words  and  also  still  more  general 
rules  to  cover  associations  to  any  stimulus  word.  These  expla- 
nations (10,  pp.  126-142)  must  be  kept  in  mind  whenever  the 
question  arises  whether  the  responses  of  a  given  8,  however 
individual  (hoy  may  be,  are  yet  within  the  bounds  of  normality. 

In  certain  of  the  words  in  their  list  this  restriction  of  the  indexes  to 
those  responses  actually  secured  from  the  1000  persons  occasions  a  per- 
fectly obvious  .'ind  rather  unfortunate  artificiality.  Take,  for  example, 
the  word  city  (No.  79).  As  a  response  t<>  it,  12  different  cities  have  been 
named,  and  with  the  must  divers  frequencies,  e.  </.,  New  York,  99;  Cleve 
land,  1.  it'  8  chanced  to  respond  Indianapolis,  he  would  have  to  \«-  cred 
[ted  With  an  Individual  response,  index  <>.  I  would  SUggesI  licit  iii  this 
case  all  names  of  cities  he  counted  together  and  the  name  of  any  city  he 
given  the  resultant  index,  124.  Similar  situations  arise  with  other  stimu- 
lus words,  like  doctor,  square,  child,  ocean,  etc.,  ami  with  respect  to  the 
grammatical  variants  of  many  of  the  responses.  Tims,  for  instance,  the 
association  man-woman  has  an  index  of  394,  that  man-icomcn  an  index  of 
o.  There  are  numerous  such  cases  in  which  a  very  slight  modification  of 
the  response  alters  enormously  its  index  value,  so  that  changes  in  the 
association  which  would  appear  psychologically  indifferent  remove  re 
spouses  from  the  realm  of  the  commonplace  and  credit  them  with  indi- 
viduality. 

Another  criticism  that  might  he  raised  against  the  use  of  the  frequency 
tables  in  the  manner  prescribed  is  that  the  tendency  toward  common 
placeness  may  be  abnormally  raised  by  the  chance  giving  of  a  very  few 
responses  whose  index  value  is  unusually  high.  To  give  the  three  re 
sponses  '■////<  vhair,  dark-light,  soft-hard,  alone,  will  give  S  1059  points  of 
commonplaceness,  even  if  he  should  bappen  to  give  an  entirely  individual 

response  to  every  one  of  the  97  remaining  terms.  To  meet  this  difficulty, 
S'B  may  he  compared  simply  with  respect  to  the  nuniher  of  common  anil 
of  individual  responses  they  have  given,  or.  as  suggested  by  Bovet,  h> 
computing  as  an  index  of  banality  the  number  of  terms  to  which  the 
most  comuion  response  is  given  and  as  an  index  of  originality  the  num 
her  of  unique  responses,  still  oilier  methods  have  been  suggested  by 
Bovet. 


58    [424]  ASSOCIATION,    LEARNING   AND    MEMORY 

In  addition  to  computing  the  coefficient  of  commonplaceness, 
and  the  percentage  of  common,  doubtful  and  individual  re- 
sponses and  failures,  E  may  attempt  a  further  classification  of 
the  responses,  and,  indeed,  he  will  find  it  quite  desirable  to 
do  so  whenever  the  number  of  individual  responses  distinctly 
exceeds  the  ordinary  number,  or  whenever  other  features  of  the 
responses  indicate  the  possibility  of  some  anomaly  in  the  asso- 
ciative processes.  For  this  purpose  the  classification  and  analy- 
sis published  by  Kent  and  Kosanoff  in  conjunction  with  their 
frequency  tables  will  serve  satisfactorily.4 

The  following  explanation  may  serve  to  assist  in  the  use  of 
this  classification. 

(a)  While  common  responses  are  as  a  rule  also  normal  responses, 
there  are  certain  ones  of  them  that  may  be  termed  non-specific  responses, 
which,  if  present  to  an  unusual  degree,  may  have  some  pathological  signifi- 
cance. A  non-specific  response  is  one  which  has  so  wide  an  application  as 
to  be  a  possible  associate  for  almost  any  stimulus  word,  e.  g.,  such  nouns 
as  thing,  article,  object,  or  such  adjectives  as  good,  small,  useful,  pleasant. 

Within  the  individual  responses,  in  addition  to  individual  non-specific 
responses  (like  those  just  mentioned,  but  not  in  the  frequency  tables), 
there  may  be  distinguished : 

(b)  Responses  by  sound,  that  lead  to  neologisms,  i.  e.,  construction  of 
new  words,  e.  g.,  man-manion,  anger- Angaria. 

(c)  Neologisms  without  sound  relation,  as  dark-unbrigJit,  deep-dcpt- 
abkness. 

(d)  Repetition  of  the  preceding  response. 

(e)  Repetition  of  a  response  five  times  or  over  (stereotypy),  as  the 
response  parent  to  the  stimuli  man.  mountain,  mutton,  short,  woman, 
cold,  etc. 

if)     Repetition  of  the  preceding  stimulus. 

(g)  Response  by  derivatives,  i.  e„  grammatical  variants  of  the  stim- 
ulus word,  e.  g..  short-shortness,  sireet-sircctened. 

(h)     Indiridual  non-specific  responses. 

(i)  Responses  by  sound,  but  with  actual  words,  e.  g..  man-manners, 
short-shorthand. 

(/)  Word  complements,  i.  e.,  responses  in  which  an  addition  to  the 
stimulus  word  forms  a  word,  name  or  compound  term  in  common  use. 
e.  g.,  baby-hood,  thirsty-blood,  green-Paris. 

(k)  Responses  by  particles  of  speech,  as  articles,  numerals,  pronouns, 
auxiliary  verbs,  adverbs  of  time,  place  and  degree,  conjunctions,  preposi- 
tions and  interjections,  e.  g.,  chair-down,  eating-sometimes,  soldier-yours. 
ichiskey-no. 

(7)     Association  to  preceding  stimulus,  meaning  a  response  not  found 

4The  prolonged  discussion  concerning  the  most  feasible  and  psycho- 
logically justifiable  system  of  classifying  responses  in  association  tests  is 
too  lengthy  for  consideration  here.  For  some  account  of  recent  classifica- 
tions the  reader  may  consult  Wells  (22)  and  Kelley  (9).  The  idea  of  Kent 
and  Rosanoff  has  been  to  forego  logical  classification  in  favor  of  a  strictly 
empirical  and  objective  system. 


TEST  33.V  :  UNCONTROLLED  ASSOCIATION  [425]    59 

in  the  frequency  tables  for  the  word  that  it  follows,  bat  found  in  them  as 
a  response  for  the  preceding  stimulus,  as  in  the  pair  of  responses,  thit  {■ 
night,  lion-pocketbook. 

(in)  Association  to  preceding  response,  meaning  a  response  not  found 
in  the  tables  for  the  word  that  it  follows,  but  found  in  them  as  a  response 
to  the  response  given  for  the  preceding  stimulus  (whether  in  direcl  or 
reverse  order),  as  In  the  pair  of  responses,  eating-table,  mountain-floor. 

(n)  Repetition  of  a  previous  response  (distinguished  from  repetition 
of  preceding  response  I . 

(o)     Repetition  of  n  previous  stimulus. 

(p)  Individual,  but  normal  responses,  according  to  rules  given  in  the 
appendix. 

(q)  Association  to  a  preceding  response  (so  judged  by  /.'.  thougb 
neither  response  chances  to  be  one  of  the  100  stimulus  words),  as  in  the 
pairs  priest-father,  ocean-mother. 

(r)  Unclassified  responses-  a  rather  large  group  in  some  types  of 
pathological  .^-s.  because  of  the  presence  of  numerous  Incoherent  responses, 
but  also  found  with  normal  n"s  when  the  response  is  affected  by  distract- 
ing circumstances,  by  purely  personal  experiences,  etc. 

In  using  this  classification,  responses  that  might  be  listed  in  two  or 
more  categories  are  to  be  assigned  to  the  one  of  them  cited  earliest  In  tlie 
above  list. 

When  t  imes  are  obtained,  the  speed  of  each  S  is  best  indi- 
cated by  the  median,  rather  than  by  the  average  time  of  bis  LOO 
responses.  Similarly,  the  best  indication  of  variability  is  found 
in  the  quartile  variation,  i.  c,  one-half  of  the  difference  between 
the  25th  and  the  T5th  time,  when  the  times  are  arranged  in 
order  from  fastest  to  slowest. 

Results. —  (1)  Normal  distribution  into  the  three  funda- 
mental categories  of  the  Kent-Rosanoff  system — common,  doubt- 
ful, and  individual — is  best  indicated  by  the  results  obtained 
by  these  workers  for  the  1000  S's  on  which  their  frequency 
tables  have  been  based.  Their  results  are  summarized  in  Table 
58,  wherein  the  distribution  obtained  by  them  and  by  other 
workers  for  other  types  of  S's  has  also  been  given  to  facilitate 
comparison.  The  point  upon  which  most  emphasis  has  been 
placed  is  the  relatively  small  percentage  of  individual  responses 
(G.8)  given  by  normal  £'s. 

(2)  Normal  times  for  free  association  with  the  Kent-Rosanoff 
series  have  been  reported  by  few  experimenters.  Miss  Otis 
merely  states  that  the  times  proved  significant  and  valuable 
and  that  defective  children  were  both  slower  and  more  variable 
than  normal  children.  Goett  (6),  who  used  Jung's  list,  found 
that  with  normal  children  the  mode  was  in  the  2d  second  and 


60    [420]  ASSOCIATION,    LEARNING    AND    MEMOKV 


TABLE    58 

Average  Distributions  for  the  Kcnt-Rosanoff  Test   {Compiled  from, 
Eastman,  Kent,  Rosanoff  and  Strong) 


EXPERIMENTERS 


S'S 


COMMON    DOUBTFUL    INDIVID'AL 


Kent  and  Rosanoff 

Kent  and  Rosanoff 

Kent  and  Rosanoff 

Strong  

Eastman  and  Rosanoff 


1000  normals  !  8-80  91.7  1.5 

247  insane adults  70.7  2.5 

32  man.-dep.  adults  75.8  3.0 

16  man.-dep.  adults  78.6  ;      1.0 

253  delinq't      11-17  I  84.0  2.2 


6.8 
26.8 
21.5 
19.7 
13.2 


was  not  much  affected  by  age,  while  with  mental  defectives  the 
mode  was  in  the  3d  second.  Kelley's  tests  of  12  college  stu- 
dents, with  a  list  of  100  terms  decidedly  more  difficult  than  the 
Kent-Rosanoff  list,  revealed  a  skewed  curve  with  the  mean 
slightly  higher  than  the  median,  the  median  slightly  higher  than 
the  mode;  the  mode  was  1.0  sec,  the  minimal  time  0.5  sec,  the 
maximal  time  3.5  sec  The  author  has  found  the  average  times 
for  college  students  with  the  Kent-Rosanoff  list  to  lie  between 
1.00  and  2.75  sec  An  average  less  than  1.5  sec  may  be  con- 
strued as  a  fast  association  time. 

(3)  Dependence  on  age.  That  children  give  distinctly  fewer 
common  associations  (and  hence  more  individual  associations) 
than  adults  is  the  general  conclusion  of  all  experimenters 
(Reinhold,  Saling,  Wreschuer,  Ziehen  and  the  Rosanoffs), 
though  Reinhold  did  not  find  the  number  of  common  responses 
to  increase  steadily  from  year  to  year,  and  the  Rosanoffs  be- 
lieve that  the  differences  between  children  and  adults  are  prac- 
tically obliterated  after  the  age  of  11. 

Their  results,  expressed  in  per  cents.,  are  shown  in  Table  59. 
Graphs  of  these  distributions  will  be  found  in  the  original  text 
(p.  49).  The  increase  in  the  frequency  of  individual  responses 
at  the  age  of  15  is  attributed  to  the  presence  of  a  number  of 
retarded  pupils  who  were  still  members  of  a  grammar  school  at 
this  age.  Failures  to  respond  (sixth  column),  which  include 
replies  of  ''don't  know,'*  are  found  to  be  due  usually  to  lack 
of  familiarity  with  the  stimulus  words.  AVhile  this  conclusion 
is  borne  out  by  their  detailed  table  of  failures  (18,  p.  17),  it 


test  33a:  uncontrolled  association        [427]  <»l 

i  \r.u;  59 

Dep&ndena  of  Distribution  in  tin   Kent-Kosanoff  Test  on  Age 
(Isabel  Ro8anoff  and  A.  •/.  Bosanoff) 


COMMON  RESPONSES 

DOUBTFUL 
RESPONSES 

INDIVIDUAL 
RE8PONSEG 

FAII.I'HKS 

AGE 

TO  l:i 

Specific 

Non-Specific 

4 

40.4 

1.1 

3.8 

25.3 

L'!».  1 

5 

55.1 

2.0 

4.4 

21.4 

17.1 

li 

62.2 

2.7 

3.2 

18.0 

L3.3 

7 

64.9 

4.0 

3.5 

20.0 

7.t; 

8 

68  i 

5.8 

3.1 

18.0 

1.7 

9 

75.1 

5.5 

1.7 

14.2 

10 

72.9 

8.4 

2.3 

1 1,", 

2.1 

11 

82.0 

7.1 

1.7 

8.6 

0.6 

12 

83.8 

6.6 

1.3 

7.ii 

H.7 

13 

81.1 

8.4 

1.8 

8.5 

ii.J 

14 

84.1 

6.3 

l.l 

7.7 

H.5 

15 

78.7 

7.G 

2.0 

10.8 

0.9 

Adults 

S5.5 

6.2 

1.5 

6.8 



must  be  borne  in  mind  that  occasionally  even  normal  adults 
reply  "nothing,"  and  again  that  young  children  often  make  no 
reply  and  vet  subsequent  questioning  shows  thai  they  have  had 
numerous  visual  and  even  verbal  associates  in  consciousness 
to  which  for  one  reason  or  another  they  have  given  no  expres- 
sion. 

A  further  analysis  of  these  writers  sheds  some  light  upon  the 
relative  preponderance  in  children  (300  cases,  4-15  years  old) 
as  compared  with  adults  (8G  normal  cases,  selected  records 
containing  no1  over  L0  percent,  individual  responses)  of  cer- 
tain types  of  individual  responses.  Reference  i<>  this  analysis, 
reproduced  in  Table  60,  shows  that  the  greater  pari  of  the  excess 
individual  responses  given  by  children  fall  in  the  categories 
'partial  dissociation'  and  'perseveration/  while  the  individual, 
but  normal  responses  (by  appendix  (<»  the  frequency  tables)  are 
actually  fewer  with  children."' 


'In  this  analysis  the  term  'partial  dissociation'  embraces  what  have  been 
described  above  as  non-specific  responses,  responses  by  sound  (including 
neologisms),  w<.nl  complements  and  particles  >>r  speech,  while  the  term 
'perseveration'  embraces  all  varieties  of  responses  to  earlier  stimuli  or  to 
earlier  responses  and  repetitions  of  responses  more  than  live  times. 


02    [428]  ASSOCIATION,,    LEARNING   AND    MEMOUY 

These  experimenters  argue  that  "it  would  seem,  then,  that  the 
tendency  of  children  to  respond  with  individual  reactions  more 

TABLE    60 

Individual  Responses  of  Children  and  Adults  in  the  Kent-Rosanoff  Test 
(Isabel  Rosanoff  and  A.  J.  Rosanoff) 


TYPES  OF  RESPONSE 


86  NORMAL  ADULTS    300  CHILDREN 


Normal  (by  appendix) 41.8  20.0 

Derivatives  of  stimulus  words 0.3  0.1 

Partial  dissociation 8.0  11.1 

Perseveration 6.1  27.8 

Neologisms  (without  sound  relation).  —  0.6 

Unclassified 43.8  40.4 


often  than  adults  rests  in  a  large  measure  upon  a  certain  lack 
of  mobility  of  attention  which  results  in  an  inability  to  quickly 
dismiss  from  the  mind  previous  stimulus  or  reaction  words  and 
to  turn  the  mind  wholly  toward  the  new  stimulus  word." 

The  author  is  inclined  to  believe  that  here,  as  in  not  a  few  other  in- 
stances in  which  children  differ  from  adults  in  psychological  tests,  what 
we  are  really  bringing  to  light  is  an  inability  of  the  children  to  understand 
the  instructions  or  disinclination  to  follow  them  if  they  are  understood. 
In  other  words,  the  regular  instructions  of  the  Kent-Rosanoff  test  consti- 
tute an  artificial  restriction  of  the  natural  associative  tendencies,  as  will 
be  shown  further  on.  Adults  are  able  and  willing  to  maintain  the  proper 
attitude  and  follow  the  ruies  of  the  game ;  many  children  are  unable  or 
unwilling  to  do  so. 

Again,  as  regards  the  perseverative  tendencies,  no  instructions  are  given 
to  the  child  to  avoid  repetition  of  association,  while  it  is  common  for 
cultured  adults  to  avoid  repetition  from  some  preconceived  notion  that 
they  are  called  upon  so  to  do. 

Moreover,  while  data  are  lacking  to  prove  this  contention,  it  seems  very 
likely  that  the  amount  of  'perseveration'  witnessed  in  responses  to  an 
association  test  is  much  influenced  by  the  speed  with  which  the  entire 
test  is  conducted,  because  the  faster  the  succession  of  stimuli,  the  greater 
the  'hang-over'  effects  of  the  words,  whether  stimuli  or  responses,  that 
have  been  in  consciousness.  Although  precise  statements  are  wanting, 
Rosanoff  and  his  co-workers  appear  to  have  conducted  their  tests  at  a 
fast  pace.  It  goes  without  saying  that  for  purposes  of  comparison  be- 
tween any  groups  of  S's,  the  speed  of  giving  the  stimuli  should  be  con- 
stant and  that  pauses  for  rest  introduced  with  one  group  should  be  intro- 
duced likewise  with  the  others. 

A  closely  similar  opinion  is  expressed  by  Kakise  (8),  when  he  says: 
"To  sum  up,  these  so-called  characteristic  forms  in  children  and  the  ab- 
normal can  all  be  found  in  normal  adults  in  their  natural  associations, 
»'.  e.,  when  they  react  according  to  natural  and  spontaneous  suggestions, 


rSBl    33a;    UNCONTROLLED    ASSOCIATION  [429]    03 

as  was  the  ease  with  our  experiment,  and  do  not  react  according  to  arti- 
ficial and  'sophisticati  d'  associations,  I.  < ..  by  mere  verbal  associations,  as 
is  the  case  In  the  customary  experiment  with  norma]  observers  who  are 
expert  enough  to  obey  the  'rult 

Another  attempt  to  establish  relations  between  age  and  asso 
dative  type  has  been  made  by  Miss  Otis,  who  tested  200  normal 
children,  aged  4  to  8  years,  l<>  in  each  of  the  5  ages,  and  com- 
pared the  results  with  those  for  130  children  in  the  Vineland, 
\.  J.,  Training  School  for  the  Feeble-Minded,  classified  for 
mental  age  by  the  Binet-Siinon  tests. 

TABLE    Gl 

Types  "i  Associative  Response  ia  Normal  and  Feeble-Minded 
Children  (Otis) 

Normals. 


AGE 

I  FAILURE 

TYPE  I 

TYPE  II 

TYPE  III 

TYPE  IV 

TYPE  V 

TOTAL 

4 

1 

21 

4 

0 

11 

3 

40 

5 

6 

13 

1 

14 

9 

43 

6 

2 

6 

13 

18 

39 

7 

2 

1 

8 

29 

40 

8 

1 

1 

3 

5 

30 

40 

All 

1 

28 

22 

11 

51 

89 

202 

Defectives. 


AGE 

FAILURE 

TYPE  I 

TYPE  II 

j   TYPE  III 

TYPE  IV 

TYPE  V 

TOTAL 

2 

4 

4 

3 

5 

1 

1 

7 

4 

3 

1 

1 

5 

5 

1 

5 

1 

7 

6 

2 

3 

1 

9 

1 

16 

7 

1 

11 

G 

18 

8 

1 

7 

If) 

27 

9 

1 

7 

15 

23 

10 

3 

14 

17 

11 

4 

4 

12 

4 

4 

All 

2 

17 

4 

1 

43 

65 

132 

til     [130]  ASSOCIATION,    LEARNING    AND    MEMORY 

Iii  Table  61,  Type  1  signifies  repetition  of  the  stimulus.  Type 

II  uoii-logical  responses  (no  apparent  conned  ion  between 
stimulus  and  response),  Type  III  responses  by  sound  (whether 
by  a  real  word  or  by  a  neologism),  Type  IV  multiverbal  re- 
sponses (like  whistle — when  you  whistle,  doctor — to  make  you 
letter,  table — there's  a  table),  and  Type  V  normal  responses 
(meaning  here  responses  by  one  word,  of  which  at  least  50  per 
cent,  must  be  found  in  the  frequency  tables).  A  child  is  classed 
as  belonging  clearly  to  one  of  these  five  types  only  when  at  least 
50  per  cent,  of  his  responses  are  of  the  kind  indicated,  but  the 
figures  given  in  Table  61  include  cases  of  'mixed'  types,  which 
have  been  classed  by  the  preponderant  tendency.  So  far  as 
normal  children  are  concerned,  it  appears  (1)  that  at  4  years 
more  than  half  belong  to  the  types  characterized  by  repetition 
of  the  stimulus,  (2)  that  non-logical  responses  (Type  II)  are 
characteristic  of  5  years,  (3)  that  multiverbal  responses  (Type 
IV)  are  very  prevalent  from  4  to  6  years,  (4)  that  a  normal 
type  of  response,  in  the  sense  here  used,  is  established  in  75  per- 
cent, of  children  by  the  age  of  8  years,  though  these  children 
by  no  means  respond  like  adults,  or  even  like  children  of  12 
when  their  detailed  responses  are  taken  into  consideration. 

The  relation  of  speed  of  association  to  age  is  not  so  clearly 
made  out  as  one  might  expect.  Nearly  all  experimenters  find 
that  work  with  the  Kent-Rosanoff  lists  takes  longer  with  chil- 
dren than  with  adults.  Ziehen  concluded  that  free  association 
times  decreased  markedly  year  by  year  and  Wreschner  reached 
a  similar  conclusion,  but  both  Goett  and  Rusk  report  that  there 
is  no  definite  relation  between  speed  and  age,  while  Meumann 
calls  attention  to  the  fact  that,  though  work  progresses  more 
rapidly  with  older  children,  the  more  intelligent  not  infre- 
quently respond  more  slowly,  and  the  less  intelligent,  by  reason, 
seemingly,  of  their  relatively  less  originality  and  paucity  of 
imagery,  frequently  respond  more  rapidly.  In  the  limited  num- 
ber of  tests  made  by  the  author,  children  (of  about  the  age  of 
0)  have  invariably  been  distinctly  slower  than  adults. 

(3)  Dependence  on  sex.  The  results  reported  by  Burt  and 
by  Burt  and  Moore  show  a  number  of  inconsistencies:  in  one 
group  at  least  C65  children  in  the  Holt  School.  Liverpool)  the 


I  i.st  :t:!.\  :   l  NCONTROLLED  ASSOCIATION  |  131  ]    65 

girls  sliglitlj  exceeded  the  boys  in  number  of  associations  wrii 
ten,  while  in  another  group  t  L30  children,  aged  L3  years,  in  the 
Wallasey  School)  35  per  cent,  of  the  Inns  exceeded  the  median 
of  girls.    Burl  and  .Moore,  in  any  event,  conclude  thai   "the 

males  are  far  quicker  than  the  females." 

In  their  compilation  of  data  from  LOOO  normal  fif's  Kent  and 
Rosanoff  olid  not  find  any  considerable  differences  between  the 
sexes  in  the  nature  of  the  distribution  of  the  responses. 

(4)  Dependence  on  practise.  Both  Busk  and  Wells  (23)  find 
that  practise  in  giving  free  associations  reduces  the  time.  Since 
this  practise  is  not  gained  by  actual  repetition  of  the  same 
series  of  stimulus  words,  the  gain  in  lime  must  lie  in  facilita- 
tion of  general  factors  that  condition  the  process  of  associating. 
Wells  finds  that  the  responses  become  less  emotional,  that  the 
number  of  supraordinate  relations  is  diminished  and  thai  of 
simple  language-motor  responses  is  increased,  while  at  the  same 
time  there  is  greater  'particnlarization'  in  the  responses.  Ver 
bal  connections  appear  to  become  'loosened  up,'  and  general 
linguistic  readiness  is  augmented.  The  effect  of  practise,  then, 
is  to  develop  an  easier,  simpler  and  more  superficial  type  of  re- 
sponse. Practise  also  decreases  the  times,  so  that  the  median 
speed  is  reduced  to  about  1.2  see.  from  any  amount  above  thai 
np  to  3.0  sec,  with  the  consequence  that  individual  differences 
in  speed  are  less  after  practise  than  before  it. 

(5)  Dependence  on  intelligence.  The  original  data  collected 
by  Kenl  and  Rosanoff  permit  them  to  compare  the  responses  ol 
100  persons  of  collegiate  education  with  those  of  l»><»  persons 
of  common  school  education.  The  comparison  indicates  (see 
their  Table  I,  p.  9)  more  individuality  in  the  responses  of  those 
of  collegiate  education,  1ml  the  authors  deem  it  unsafe  to  risk 
a  definite  generalization  to  this  effect  on  account  of  the  wide 
variability  in  individual  records  of  both  groups. 

In   the  case  of  children    Isabel  and  A.  J.  KosanolV  compared 
L't  'bright,'  L'l   'average'  and  21   'dull'  children   (teachers'  esti 
mates)  and  seemed  the  results  shown  in  Table  ill'. 
The  same  investigators  contrasted  38  pupils  who  were  peda 
gogically  advanced  with  38  pupils  of  the  same  ages  who  wen' 
pedagogically  retarded,  and  found,  similarly,  that  the  retarded 


66    [432]  ASSOCIATION;    LEARNING    AND    MEMOBY 

TABLE    62 

Distribution   of  Responses  as  Conditioned   by  Intelligence   (Isabel  and 

A.  J.  Rosanoff) 


DOUBTFUL 


INDIVIDUAL 


Bright  — 
Average- 
Dull 


79.0 
75.3 
66.9 


3.4 
2.7 
2.3 


12.0 
12.6 
22.0 


5.6 
9.4 

8.8 


pupils  gave  more  individual  responses  (13.7  vs.  9.8  per  cent.) 
and  the  advanced  pupils  more  common  responses  (86.9  vs.  81.6 
per  cent.).  They  believe  that  extreme  departure  from  the  dis- 
tribution which  is  average  for  the  age  of  the  child  in  question 
is  an  indication  of  a  fundamental  difference  in  mental  ability ; 
that  'plus-variations'  [exceptionally  high  percentage  of  common 
responses?]  characterize  cases  of  precocity,  while  "minus- 
variations  border  on  the  pathological." 

These  conclusions  are  distinctly  at  variance  with  those 
reached  by  Ziehen,  by  Wreschner  and  by  Meumann,  all  of  whom 
lind  a  greater  degree  of  originality,  i.  e.,  more  individuality, 
in  the  associations  given  by  more  intelligent  children.  Other 
differences  cited  by  Meumann  (14,  89-101)  are  the  following: 
(1)  the  unintelligent  more  often  misunderstand  or  misinterpret 
the  stimulus  word;  (2)  they  more  often  fail  to  respond;  (3) 
they  give  a  greater  number  of  incoherent  and  seemingly  sense- 
less associations;  (4)  they  more  often  use  very  'superficial'  con 
nections,  such  as  grammatical  variants  of  the  stimulus,  rimes, 
simple  opposites;  (5)  they  often  give  responses  derived  from 
phrases  or  verbal  connections  that  they  have  learned  in  some 
school  exercise;  (6)  they  often  exhibit  an  apparent  precocity 
by  giving  responses  like  adults  rather  than  the  more  concrete 
and  pictorial  associations  that  are  characteristic  of  most  chil- 
dren of  their  years;  (7)  they  tend  to  stick  to  certain  forms  of 
response  once  they  have  begun  to  use  them  (perseveration). 
Reinhold,  on  the  other  hand,  found  that  in  two  of  four  classes 
the  better  children  showed  more,  and  in  the  other  two  less  orig- 
inality than  the  poorer  children :  he  also  argues  that  no  differen- 
tiation between  intelligent  and  unintelligent  children  can  be 


TEST  33a  :  UNCONTROLLED  ASSOCIATION  183]    67 

made  on  the  basis  of  the  tendency  toward  responses  by  sound, 
as  this  tendency  is  found  on  repetition  of  the  test  to  be  quite 
variable  and  a  mere  matter  of  chance  attitude  or  'set.'  Simi- 
larly, Winteler,  'who  sought  to  distinguish  two  types  of  re- 
sponse (the  one  termed  th<'  perceptual  or  describing,  the  other 
the  comparing  or  relating  type),  could  discern  no  relation  be- 
tween  intelligence  and  propensity  to  use  these  types. 

(6)  Dependence  on  family  relationship.  Furst,  who  tested 
100  persons  in  24  families  with  Jung's  test  words  (7)  and 
classified  the  responses  under  various  categories,  concluded  that 
persona  related  to  one  another  tend  to  exhibit  more  similarity 
in  the  use  of  these  types  than  do  persons  not  related.  He  also 
concluded  that  the  associative  type  of  children  resembles  that 
of  their  mother  more  than  that  of  their  father. 

(7)  The  feeble-minded.  Miss  Otis'  results  with  Yineland 
children  have  been  presented  in  Table  CI,  where  it  is  shown  that 
repetition  of  the  stimulus  (Type  I)  is  a  common  tendency 
with  low-grade  mental  defectives,  thai  multiverbal  responses 
(Type  IV)  are  encountered  more  often  and  persist  till  a  later 
age  in  feeble-minded  than  in  normal  children,  and  that  normal 
responses  (Type  V)  appear  later  and  less  regularly  iu  the 
feeble  minded.  Goetl  deems  the  test  of  diagnostic  value  for  ex- 
amining abnormal  children.  He  states  that  imbeciles  have 
slower  association  times,  tend  to  repeat  responses  and  to  give 
an  unusually  large  number  of  multiverbal  and  non-specific  re- 
sponses and  responses  of  the  'predicative'  type  {wood — burn, 
glass— breaking) .  The  253  children  examined  by  Eastman  and 
Rosanoff  seem  to  have  been  at  least  two  years  or  more  peda- 
gogical ly  retarded.  The  results  accord  quite  closely  with  those 
of  Miss  Otis  and  of  Goetl  in  that  they  reveal  an  unusual  number 
of  non-specific  responses,  of  repetitions  of  response,  and  of  the 
use  of  particles.  In  addition,  these  investigators  found  a  rela- 
tively large  proportion  of  failures  to  respond,  and  a  percentage 
of  individual  responses  much  above  the  average  for  normal  per- 
sons, though  not  so  great  as  in  the  insane  (Table  58).  On  the 
other  hand,  really  incoherent  responses,  senseless  neologisms, 
etc.,  so  frequent  in  the  insane,  were  almost  never  given  by  the 
feeble-minded.     These  authors  point  out  that  the  conclusions 


(IS    [434]  ASSOCIATION,    LEARNING    AND    MEMORY 

just  cited  are  true  only  for  the  group  as  a  whole;  a  good  many 
of  the  children  rated  as  feeble-minded  or  delinquent  gave  normal 
associations.  When  to  this  admission  is  added  the  demonstra- 
tion of  Kakise,  to  which  Ave  have  alluded,  that  nmltiverbal  re- 
sponses, repetition  of  the  stimulus  and  other  tendencies  sup- 
posed to  be  characteristic  of  abnormal  minds  can  also  be  found 
in  normal  adults,  the  value  of  the  Kent-Rosanoff  test  as  a  device 
for  diagnosis  of  individual  cases  is  certainly  much  less  evident 
than  some  of  its  friends  wrould  have  us  believe. 

(8)  The  insane.  That  the  insane  show  a  relatively  high  fre- 
quency of  individual  responses  is  shown  by  the  work  of  Kent 
and  Rosanoff  and  of  Strong  (Table  58).  Kent  and  RosanolT 
have  also  shown  by  further  analysis  of  their  material  (10,  p. 
29)  that  there  are  characteristic  differences  in  the  distribution 
of  the  various  forms  of  individual  responses  in  the  several  dif- 
ferent forms  of  insanity,  such  as  dementia  praecox,  paranoia, 
epilepsy,  general  paresis,  manic-depressive  insanity.  A  similar 
conclusion  is  reached  by  Ley  and  Menzerath  (12).  The  results 
obtained  by  Strong  with  10  cases  of  manic-depressive  insanity 
show  good  agreement  with  those  obtained  by  Kent  and  RosanorT 
for  32  cases  of  the  same  sort.  To  what  extent  inferences  may 
safely  be  drawn  from  peculiarities  in  the  times  of  responses, 
particularly  from  excessive  slowness  of  reply,  with  respect  to 
the  presence  of  hidded  emotional  complexes  is  a  matter  of  much 
dispute.0 

(9)  Dependence  on  instructions.    Attention  has  already  been 
called  to  the  difference  in  the  outcome  of  the  association  test 

according  as  8  is  set  to  respond  as  quickly  as  possible  or  as  icell 
as  possible.7  It  should  be  repeated  that  the  conclusions  drawn 
from  the  Kent-Rosanoff  test  with  its  frequency  tables  hold  only 
when  the  instructions  to  respond  by  a  single  word  as  quickly 
as  possible  are  strictly  followed.  In  illustration  reference 
may  be  made  to  the  author's  own  responses,  taken  under  Varia- 


"A  general  idea  of  this  problem  may  be  gained  from  the  references  bere 
cited  from  Jung,  Ley  and  Menzerath  and  Levy-Siihl. 

'Consult  Meiunann  (13,  420  ff.)  for  further  analysis  of  possible  instruc- 
tions for  this  test.  Roels  (17)  has  also  called  attention  to  the  fact 
that  Sf's,  despite  uniformity  of  instructions,  do  adopt  different  attitudes 
toward  the  test  and  thus  give  different  times  and  responses. 


test  33a:  uncontrolled  association        [435]  69 

t ion  of  Method  No.  '■'>  (leisurely  response  wiih  permission  to  use 
phrases  when  such  did  appear  lirst  in  consciousness).  Three 
alterations  are  proininenl  when  the  responses  are  compared 
with  those  by  the  standard  instructions,  (a)  The  number  of 
individual  responses  is  decidedly  increased,  so  thai  the  coeffi- 
cient of  commonplaceness  falls  from  L2.8  to  L0.5  (reckoned  in 
terms  of  the  mean)  or  from  7.0  to  3.0  (reckoned  in  terms  of  the 
median).    Striking  examples  are  the  following: 


STIMULUS        QUICK   RESPONSK    \     COEFFICIENT  LEISURELY    RESPONSE      '  COEFFICIENT 


soft 

hard 

needle 

thread 

religion 

faith 

whiskey 

rye 

city 

town 

365  pedal  0 

L60  stickpin  0 

47  ecstasy  0 

9  rotten  0 

258  voleiir  0 


(b)  There  are  numerous  responses  by  phrases,  and,  further- 
more, comparison  of  these  phrases  with  the  single-term  re- 
sponses under  standard  instruction  shows  that  the  single  terms 
were  really  picked  out  from  the  phrase  that<was  rising  in  con 
sciousness.  That  young  children  may  not  always  slop  to  make 
this  selection  is  the  evident  explanation  of  the  tendency  seen 
in  (hem  to  respond  by  phrases,  even  despite  repeated  instruc- 
tions to  the  contrary  by  /,'.  The  following  examples  will  make 
this  point  clear: 

STIMULUS  QUICK   RESPONSE  LEISURELY  RESPONSE 


lion  beast  king  of  beasts 

command  order  yours  to  command 

justice  peace  justice,  peace  and  mercy 

child  father  child  is  father  to  the  man 


(c)    There  are  numerous  indications  of  'perseverat ive'   tend 
eucies,  especially  in  the  use  of  the  same  response  for  a  number 


6By  way  of  the  phrase:  "the  city  is  Cull  of  thieves"  and  thence  to  the 
French  for  thief— an  excellent   Illustration  of  the  complexity  of  the 

process  thai  may  intervene  before  it  is  possible  to  ejaculate  an  oral 
response,  and  of  the  faci  thai  the  dropping  of  all  Introspective  reports 
must  roll  the  tost  of  much  of  its  interest. 


70    [436]  ASSOCIATION,    LEARNING   AND    MEMORY 

of  different  stimuli,  as  soft — pedal,  smooth — soft,  hard — soft, 
loud — soft  pedal,  quiet — soft  pedal. 

REFERENCES 

(1)  P.  Bovet,  L'originalite  et  la  banalite  dans  les  experiences  col- 
lectives dissociation.    ArPs(f),  10:1910,  79-83. 

(2)  C.  Burt,  Experimental  tests  of  higher  mental  processes  and  their 
relation  to  general  intelligence.    JEPd,  1 :1911,  93-112. 

(3)  C.  Burt  and  R.  C.  Moore,  The  mental  differences  between  the 
sexes.    JEPd,  1 :1912,  273-284,  355-388. 

(4)  J.  M.  Cattell  and  Sophie  Bryant,  Mental  association  investigated 
by  experiment.    Mind,  14 :1889,  230-250. 

(5)  F.  C.  Eastman  and  A.  J.  Rosanoff,  Association  in  feeble-minded 
and  delinquent  children.    AmJIns,  G9 :  1912,  125-141. 

(6)  T.  Goett,  Associationsversuche  an  Kindern.  Z.  f.  Kinderheilkunde: 
1911.  (Reprint,  Pp.  105.)  For  detailed  review,  see  ArPs(f),  12:  1912, 
192-193. 

(7)  C.  G.  Jung,  The  association  method.    Am JPs,  21 :  1910,  219-269. 

(8)  H.  Kakise,  A  preliminary  study  of  the  conscious  concomitants 
of  understanding.    Am  JPs,  22:  1911,  14-64. 

(9)  T.  L.  Kelley,  The  association  experiment:  individual  differences 
and  correlations.    PsR,  20  :  1913,  479-504. 

(10)  Grace  H.  Kent  and  A.  J.  Rosanoff,  A  study  of  association  in 
insanity.    AmJIns,  67 :  1910.     (Reprint.    Pp.142.) 

(11)  M.  Levy-Siihl,  Ueber  experimentelle  Beeinflussung  des  Vorstel- 
Iungsverlaufs  bei  Geisteskranken.    Leipzig,  1911.    Pp.  142. 

(12)  Ley  et  Menzerath,  Les  associations  des  idees  dans  les  maladies 
mentales.    Gand,  1911.    Pp.  200. 

(13)  E.  Meumann,  Vorlesungen  zur  Einfuhrung  in  die  exp.  Piida- 
gogik.    Vol.  II.    Leipzig,  1913.     (2d  ed.) 

(14)  E.  Meumann,  Intelligenzpriifungen  an  Kindern  der  Volksschule. 
EPd,  1 :  1905,  35-101. 

(15)  Margaret  Otis,  A  study  of  association  in  defectives.  To  appear 
In  JEdPs  (?). 

(16)  F.  Reinhold,  Beitrage  zur  Associationslehre  auf  Grund  von 
Massenversuchen.    ZPs,  54 :  1910,  183-214. 

(17)  F.  Roels,  La  recherche  du  mot  de  reaction  dans  les  experiences 
d'association.  Extrait,  Amiales  de  VInstitut  Bupcricur  de  Philosophie 
(Louvain),  3  :  1914,  553-573. 

(18)  Isabel  Rosanoff  and  A.  J.  Rosanoff,  A  study  of  association  in 
children.    PsR,  20 :  1913,  43-89. 

(19)  R.  R.  Rusk,  Experiments  on  mental  association  in  children. 
BrJPs,  3 :  1910,  349-385. 

(20)  Gertrud  Saling.  Associative  Massenversuche.  ZPs,  49 :  1908, 
238-253. 

(21)  E.  K.  Strong,  Jr.,  A  comparison  between  experimental  data  and 
clinical  results  in  maalc-depressive  insanity.     AmJPs,  24 :  1913,  66-98. 

(22)  F.  L.  Wells,  (a)  A  preliminary  note  on  the  categories  of  asso- 
ciation reactions.  PsR,  18:  1911,  229-233.  (l>)  The  question  of  associa- 
tion types.    PsR,  19 :  1912,  253-270. 

(23)  F.  L.  Wells,  Practise  effects  in  free  association.  AmJPs,  22: 
1911,  1-13. 

(24)  J.  Winteler,  Experimentelle  Beitrage  zu  einer  Begabnngslehre. 
EPd.  2:  1906,  1-48,  147-247. 


TEST  34  :  CONTROLLED  ASSOCIATION  [437]     71 

(25)  R.  S.  Woodworth  and  F.  L.  Well*.  Association  teste  PiUon, 
13:  1911  (No.  57).    Pp.  85. 

(20)  A.  Wreschner,  Die  Reproduktion  and  Assozlation  von  Vorstel- 
lungen.    Leipzig.    Erganzungsband,  ZP8,  3 :  1907. 

(27)  T.  Ziehen,  Die  Ideenassoziation  des  Kindes.  Berlin,  1898  and 
1900. 

TEST  34 

Controlled  association:  logical  relations.— These  tests  differ 
from  the  preceding  test  of  association  in  that  they  demand  the 
giving  of  a  response  which  is  so  restricted  thai  only  a  very 
limited  number  of  terms  may  be  deemed  correct  associates. 
There  are,  of  course,  numerous  forms  of  controlled  association, 
since  numerous  logical  relations  may  be  demanded  between 
the  stimulus  words  and  the  responses.  The  relations  thai  have 
received  most  attention  in  the  literature  of  mental  tests  are 
part-whole,  genus-species  (subordinate)  and  opposites.  Other 
less  often  used  relations  are  whole-part,  agent-action  (subject- 
verb),  action-agent  (verb-subject),  attribute-substance  (ad- 
jective-noun),  substance-attribute  ( noun-adjective),  cause-effect, 
effect-cause,  species-genus  (supraordinate),  co-ordinate  and 
mixed  relations. 

Just  precisely  what  mental  capacities  are  measured  by  these 
tests  is  not  always  (dear.  Of  course,  it  may  be  said  ronghly 
that  they  call  forth  the  "ability  to  appreciate  relationships  and 
to  control  associations."  It  is  also  evident  that  the  skill  in 
handling  these  various  relations  is  based  upon  what  is  known  in 
psychology  as  a  "determining  tendency,"  or  "adjustment  to 
react  according  to  instructions,"  and  that  "the  more  completely 
this  adjustment  dominates  the  performance,  facilitating  the 
right  responses  and  inhibiting  other,  interfering  associations 
and  perseverations,  the  less  hesitation  and  confusion  will  occur 
and  the  more  prompt  will  be  the  reaction." 

On  the  other  hand,  an  obstacle  both  to  designating  the  ca 
pacifies  measured  and  to  evaluating  the  results  of  these  tests 
lies  in  the  selection  of  the  stimulus  words  themselves,  for,  if 
the  terms  are  too  difficult,  failures  appear  due  to  lack  of  famil- 
iarity with  their  meaning  or  with  the  meaning  of  the  terms 
connected  with  them  in  various  logical  relations;  while,  if  they 
are  too  simple,  no  'thinking'  is  demanded  and  the  responses  are 


72    [438]  ASSOCIATION,    LEARNING   AND    MEMORY 

given  well-nigh  automatically.  Moreover,  the  inclusion  in  a 
list  of  terms  of  one  or  more  stimuli  that  are  markedly  different 
from  the  others  in  this  respect  introduces  a  source  of  difficulty 
in  administering  the  test  that  is  hard  to  meet,  especially  in 
group  tests.  The  only  solution  of  these  difficulties  is  to  discover 
by  comprehensive  testing  what  might  be  termed  the  'association 
value'  of  each  stimulus  word  for  S'a  of  a  given  sex,  age,  intelli- 
gence, etc.,  and  then  to  prepare  standardized  lists  of  stimuli 
suited  by  their  like  association  values  to  the  measure  of  con- 
trolled association  in  specified  types  of  $'s.  Much  has  been 
accomplished  in  this  direction,  but  much  still  remains  to  be 
done. 

Consideration  of  the  various  possible  forms  of  controlled 
association  is  limited  in  what  follows  mainly  to  the  most-used 
relations,  part-whole,  genus-species,  and  opposites.1 

A.      THE  PART-WHOLE  TEST 

Materials. —  (1)  For  individual  tesls:  Split-second  stop- 
watch. Set  of  20  cards  (and  3  samples),  each  containing  a 
stimulus  word.  Paper  for  recording  times,  responses  and  re- 
marks. (2)  For  group  test :  Stop-watch  or  special  seconds  clock. 
Printed  form  containing  the  same  stimuli  and  provided  with 
spaces  for  the  recording  of  the  20  associates. 

The  terms  incorporated  in  these  cards  and  in  the  form  are  those  rec- 
ommended by  Woodworth  and  Wells  as  the  result  of  numerous  efforts 
at  standardization.  Cards  are  used,  however,  instead  of  the  narrow 
cardboard  strip  of  these  authors  in  order  that  the  time  of  each  response 
may  be  measured  by  itself.  The  paper  form  is  used  to  admit  of  written 
group  tests. 

The  terms  proposed  by  Pyle  for  this  test  are :  window,  leaf,  pillow, 
button,  nose,  smokestack,  cogwheel,  cover,  letter,  petal,  page,  cob,  axle, 
lever,  blade,  sail,  coach,  cylinder,  beak,  stamen.  His  supplementary  list 
is  the  same  as  that  of  Woodworth  and  Wells. 

The  10-word  lists  used  by  Rusk  were:  ear,  wheel,  beak,  inch,  platform, 
mast,  branch,  kernel,  funnel,  buckle:  alternatives,  mouth,  handle,  claw. 
ounce,  pavement,  sail,  stem,  core,  boiler,  knob. 

The  ten  terms  employed  by  Miss  Norsworthy  were:  door,  pillow,  letter, 
leaf,  button,  nose,  cover,  page,  engine,  glass. 

The  ten  terms  employed  by  Wyatt  are  not  specified  by  him. 


'The  mixed  relations  or  analogies  tost  Is  dealt  with  separately  as  Tesl 
:\4A.  For  further  details  concerning  other  tests  of  logical  relationship, 
cousull  Rusk  i  15),  Watl  (20)  mid  Woodworth  and  Wells  (22). 


TEST  34  :  CONTROLLED  ASSOCIATION  [439]    73 

Method.— Instruct  8  as  follows:  "Each  one  of  these  card! 
has  printed  on  it  a  word.  As  soon  as  I  uncover  a  card  I  wan; 
you  to  look  at  the  word  on  it  and  then,  as  quickly  as  you  can, 
say  aloud  the  name  of  the  whole  thing  of  which  that  word  is  a 
part.  The  word  yon  read  is  a  pari  :  you  arc  to  name  the  whole. 
For  example,  if  the  card  should  have  the  word  fur  on  it,  you 
might  say  cat  or  seal  or  fox.  Wo  will  try  these  sample  cards 
first  to  make  sure  you  understand." 

After  a  warning  'now'  remove  the  cover  card  from  the  top  of 
the  pile  and  take  S's  time  for  the  first  sample — button.  Follow 
with  the  other  samples,  leaf  and  drawer.  These  cards  are  dis- 
played and  the  time  taken  just  as  in  the  test  proper,  in  order 
to  accustom  8  to  the  regular  procedure.  Misunderstandings 
are,  of  course,  corrected  and  cleared  away. 

Proceed  with  the  20  standard  test  cards.  Record  on  the  blank 
sheet  of  paper  the  times,  in  tenths  of  a  second,  together  with 
jS's  responses  and  any  comments  that  suggest  themselves.  Each 
rani  is  provided  with  its  own  cover-card.  They  are  best  re- 
moved with  the  left  hand  and  the  watch  started  simultaneously 
with  the  right.  It  is  recommended  that  the  split-second  watch 
be  used,  so  that  one  hand  may  be  stopped  when  S  first  re- 
sponds; then,  if  his  response  chances  to  be  wrong,  say  'No,  give 
me  another,'  and  take  the  time  of  his  second  attempt  with  the 
other  hand  of  the  watch.  In  this  event,  both  times  and  both 
responses  are  recorded. 

Variations  of  Method. —  (1)  Individual  testing  may  also  be 
carried  out,  especially  if  none  of  the  terms  is  likely  to  cause 
unusual  delay,  by  giving  8  the  printed  form  provided  for  group 
tests  and  taking  his  total  time  for  naming  orally  the  entire 
series  of  responses. 

(2)  For  a  group  test  by  the  work-limit  method2  (which  is 
recommended  for  >s"s  who  are  competent  to  record  their  own 
time)  use  the  printed  forms  and  the  special  seconds  clock,  after 
the  samples  above  mentioned  have  been  displayed  on  a  black- 
board and  discussed  with  the  <S"s.  The  clock  is  started  at  the 
signal  for  turning  over  the  forms.  Each  flf,  of  course,  makes 
his  own  written  record. 


=See  Vol.  I,  p.  8,  Section  (7). 


74    [440]  ASSOCIATION,    LEARNING    AND    MEMORY 

(3)  For  a  group  test  by  the  time-limit  method  use  the  same 
forms  and  stop  all  fif's  at  a  time-limit  so  chosen  on  the  basis  of 
preliminary  trials  with  S's  of  that  grade  of  ability  that  the 
fastest  S  shall  reach  about  the  16th  term  on  the  list.3  It  is 
hardly  necessary  to  state  that  the  scores  obtained  by  either 
group  test  are  not  directly  comparable  with  those  obtained  by 
the  individual  method. 

Treatment  of  Data.— (1)  In  the  individual  test  the  best 
indication  of  speed  is  furnished  by  the  median.  For  a  measure 
of  variability  the  semi-quartile  variation  may  be  used,  i.  e.,  one- 
half  the  difference  between  the  5th  and  15th  time,  when  the 
series  of  times  is  arranged  in  order  from  fastest  to  slowest.  If 
the  *S"s  are  competent,  the  errors  will  ordinarily  be  negligible, 
so  that  performance  may  be  measured  in  terms  of  speed  alone. 
If  it  should  happen  that  differences  in  speed  are  slight,  while 
qualitative  differences  are  well-marked,  speed  may  be  neglected 
and  performance  rated  in  terms  of  quality,  as  by  scoring  1  for 
each  well-chosen  associate,  0.5  for  each  'partly  right'  associate, 
and  0  for  wrong  associates  or  omissions.  If  both  speed  and 
correctness  need  to  be  considered,  some  of  the  methods  sug 
gested  in  the  cancellation  test  (No.  26)  or  in  the  opposites  test 
(below)  may  be  employed. 

(2)  When  individuals  are  tested  by  recording  the  total  time 
for  the  entire  list  (Variation  1),  errors  may  again  be  neglected 
if  few  and  of  slight  moment ;  if  more  serious,  the  time  may  be 
increased  by  adding  to  it  a  penalty  figured  on  the  basis  of  the 
average  time  taken  to  utter  a  correct  response  to  each  stimulus 
omitted  or  responded  to  wrongly. 

(3)  In  group  tests  by  the  work-limit  method,  performance 
may,  similarly,  be  taken  in  terms  of  total  time,  or  of  correct- 
ness, or  of  some  combination  of  time  and  correctness. 

(4)  In  group  tests  by  the  time-limit  method,  the  simplest 
method  of  scoring  is  that  of  crediting  1,  0.5  or  0  for  each  re- 


3The  lists  of  terms  in  these  tests  of  controlled  association  have  been 
so  arranged  by  Woodwortb  and  Wells  that  the  terms  lying  between  the 
8th  and  the  16th  represent  as  nearly  as  possible  stimuli  of  equal  difficulty. 
Thirty  sec.  will  suffice  for  testing  competent  adults.  Pyle  recommends 
60  sec.  for  Grades  2,  3  and  4;  45  sec.  for  other  grades  (and  30  sec.  for 
adults?). 


TEST  34  :  CONTROLLED  ASSOCIATION 


|4111   75 


sponge,  as  above  explained.  If  necessary  to  compare  the  per- 
formances of  groups  that  have  had  different  time-limits,  thej 
may  be  related  by  computing  them  all  as  if  60  sec.  had  been 
assigned,  e.  .</••  by  multiplying  the  score  of  adults  by  2,  etc. 

Results. —  (1)  Norms  of  performance  in  the  part-whole  tesl 
are  supplied  chiefly  in  the  data  published  by  Woodworth  and 
Wells,  by  Miss  Norsworthy  and  by  Pyle.  Testa  of  adult  college 
students  by  the  first-named  authors  show  thai  the  average  asso 
ciation  time  for  this  variety  of  controlled  association  (Varia- 
tion of  Method  No.  1)  may  be  taken  as  1.53  see.,  P.E.  .06,  with 
a  range  for  different  individuals  of  from  l.<>:;  to  2.50  Bee.  The 
median  times  reported  by  Busk  for  22  children,  aged  7  years 
6  months  to  14  years  !)  mouths,  under  ftfeumann's  'B'  instruc- 
tions (emphasizing  quality  rather  than  speed)  range  from  l..; 
to  5.0  sec.  Miss  Xorsworthy's  norms,  based  on  504  cases,  rep- 
resent results  with  her  list  of  10  words,  no  time-limit,  scored  in 
terms  of  number  of  correct  associates.  Pyle's  norms  are  based 
upon  his  list  of  20  words,  scored  in  number  correctly  written 
in  a  group  test,  computed  on  a  basis  of  GO  sec.  time  limit. 


TABLE    63 
Performance  in  the  Part-Whole  Test  (Nor8tvorthy) 


AGE 

8 

9 

10 

11 

12 

13 

u 

16 

iti 

ADULTS 

Median 

P.  E. 

6.5 

2.3 

7.8 
1.3 

7.8 
1.9 

8.7 
1.1 

8.7 
1.2 

9.0 

0.7 

9.0 
0.7 

9.0 
0.7 

9.0 
0.7 

10.0 

0.5 

TABLE    64 
Correct  Associates  Written  in  60  See.  Part-Whole  Test   (Pule) 


SEX 

AGE 

8 

9 

10 

11        V2 

13 

1-1 

15 

16 

IT 

18 

AIHI.1 

Cases  31 

67    70    65 

76 

77 

| 

62    42 

35    12    23 

66 

Male - 

Aver.    5.5 

6.5   7.3   8.9 

8.911.1 

12.2  14.815.915.819.3 

18.5 

A.  D.    3.6 

2.9   2.5   2.8 

3.4 

4.3 

4.1    5.5   5.3   4.0   5.6 

3.6 

Cases  43 

61     SS    67 

87 

71 

63    48    51     38    28 

87 

Female 

Aver.    4.6 

5.9   7.8  10.0  10.0  10.8  12.5  14.0  16.9  16.2  19.7 

19.7. 

A.  D.    2.6 

2.4   2.9  3.5  3.7 

1 

3, 

3.2  4.5  4.5  4.8  4.6 

3, 

70    [442]  ASSOCIATION,    LEARNING    AND    MEMORY 

(2)  Dependence  on  age.  The  results  obtained  by  both  Pyle 
aDd  Miss  Norsworthy  show  that  performance  in  this  test  un- 
dergoes a  fairly  steady  improvement  from  8  to  18  years.  The 
lack  of  any  correspondence  between  speed  and  age  reported  by 
Rusk  is  probably  due  to  the  small  number  of  cases  examined 
by  him. 

(3)  Dependence  on  sex.  Sex-differences  are  not  sufficiently 
evident  to  warrant  conclusions,  though  it  may  be  surmised  that 
girls  and  women  tend  to  be  slightly  superior  to  boys  and  men. 

(4)  Dependence  on  intelligence.  Wyatt  found  a  fair  degree 
of  correlation  with  intelligence  (0.67,  P.E.  .07  in  one  group 
using  teachers'  estimates,  and  0.56,  P.E.  .08  in  another  group, 
using  class  examinations  as  the  basis  for  intelligence). 

(5)  Feeble-minded.  The  work  of  Miss  Norsworthy  shows  that 
mentally  defective  children  are  distinctly  inferior  to  normal 
children  in  this  test:  thus  the  percentage  of  normal  children 
with  a  record  above  the  median,  above  — 1  P.E.,  and  above 
—2  P.E.,  would,  of  course,  be  50,  75,  and  91,  respectively,  but 
the  percentages  of  feeble-minded  children  obtaining  these  three 
grades  of  efficiency  were  but  9,  17,  and  27,  respectively.  That  is, 
only  9  per  cent,  of  the  feeble-minded  children  reached  the  de- 
gree of  efficiency  attained  by  one-half  of  the  normal  children,  etc. 

(6)  Other  correlations.  Wyatt  obtained  with  his  Group  I  a 
moderately  satisfactory  coefficient  of  reliability,  0.65.  His 
correlations  with  other  tests  range  from  0.09  to  0.77.  The 
lowest  correlation  was  with  the  letter-squares  test;  the  higher 
correlations  appeared  with  analogies  (0.67),  the  completion  test 
(0.75)  and  word-building  (0.77). 

B.      THE  GENUS-SPECIES  TEST 

Materials. —  (1)  For  individual  tests:  Split-second  stop- 
watch. Set  of  20  cards  (and  three  samples)  each  containing 
a  stimulus  word.  Paper  for  recording  times,  responses  and  re- 
marks. (2)  For  group  tests:  Stop-watch  or  special  seconds 
clock.  Printed  form  containing  the  same  stimuli  and  provided 
with  space  for  recording  the  20  associates. 


DEBT  34  :  CONTROLLED  ASSOCIATION  [443]    77 

These  20  terms  nre  those  recommended  by  Woodworth  and  Wells, 

The  10  terms  used  by  Miss  Norswortby  are:  hook,  tree,  room,  toy, 
Dame,  dish,  hoat,  game,  plant,  flsb. 

The  20  terms  proposed  by  Pyle  are:  mountain,  city,  weed,  metal,  Cur- 
uiture,  machine,  author,  planet,  river,  book,  ocean,  fruit,  country,  animal, 
bird,  food,  lake,  tool,  fish,  money.  His  supplementary  list  is  the  same  as 
Woodworth  and  Wells. 

The  10-word  lists  used  by  Rusk  were:  tree,  flsh,  college,  battle,  picture, 
tool,  hero,  lesson,  taste,  wrong:  alternatives,  bird,  leaf,  game,  poem,  song, 
toy,  hobby,  book,  smell,  virtue. 

Method. — Instrucl  8  as  follows:  "Each  one  of  these  cards 
has  printed  on  it  a  word.  As  soon  as  I  uncover  a  card,  look  at 
the  word  on  it  and  then,  us  quickly  as  you  can,  say  aloud  the 
name  of  sonic  particular  thing  that  belongs  in  the  class  that 
is  given  on  the  card.  The  word  you  read  is  the  name  of  a  (lass 
or  genus;  you  are  to  name  an  example  of  that  class,  a  species  of 
that  genus.  For  example,  if  the  card  should  have  on  it  the 
word  taste,  you  might  say  siccct  or  salt,  or  if  the  word  verb, 
you  might  name  any  verb  like  run  or  go.  We  will  try  three 
sample  cards  first  to  make  sure  you  understand."  Follow  the 
procedure  outlined  for  the  part-whole  test  in  regard  to  the  use 
of  the  sample  cards,  timing,  etc. 

Variations  of  Method. — Follow  the  suggestions  given  for 
part-whole  test,  save  that  here  the  samples  will  be  bird,  dish 
and  game. 

Treatment  of  Data. — Follow  the  suggestions  given  for  the 
part-whole  test. 

Results. —  (1)  Tests  of  adult  college  students  by  Woodworth 
and  Wells  (Variant  Method  Xo.  1)  show  for  the  genus-species 
test  an  average  association  time  of  1.84  sec.,  P.E.  .07,  with  a 
range  for  different  individuals  of  from  1.20  to  2.G3  sec.  The 
medians  reported  by  Rusk  for  22  children  from  about  7  to  15 
years  of  age,  with  quality  emphasized  more  than  speed,  range 
from  1.6  to  11.4  sec.  The  norms  reproduced  here  from  Miss 
Norswortby  are  based  on  511  cases  and  represent  performances 
made  with  her  list  of  10  words,  no  time-limit,  scored  in  terms 
of  number  of  correct  associates.  The  norms  reproduced  from 
Pyle  are  based  on  his  list  of  20  words,  scored  in  terms  of  num- 
ber correctly  written  in  a  group  test,  computed  on  a  basis  of 
GO  sec.  time-limit. 


78    [.444]  ASSOCIATION;    LEARNING    AND    MEMOUV 

TABLE    63 

Performance  in  the  Genus-Species  Test  (Norsicorthy) 


AGE                   8 

9            10 

11      j      12 

13            14           15 

16 

ADULTS 

]Uedian___ 
P.  E 

5.0 
2.0 

5.0 
2.7 

7.0 
2.9 

9.2 
1.9 

9.2 

0.7 

9.3 
0.4 

9.3 
0.5 

9.5 

0.5 

9.5 
0.5 

10.0 
0.0 

TABLE    GO 
Correct  Associates  Written  in  GO  Sec.  Genus-Species  Test  (Pyle) 


SEX 

AGE            8 

9 

10 

11   |   12      13 

14 

15        16       17       18          ADULT 

Male 

Female 

Cases 
Aver. 
A.  D. 

Cases 
Aver. 
A.  D. 

29 
4.6 
3.4 

34 
5.5 
3.6 

67 
5.7 
3.4 

65 

5.4 
2.5 

66 
6.5 
3.7 

84 
7.8 
3.2 

62 
7.2 
3.3 

63 
8.2 
3.7 

69    68 
7.1 10.0 

2.5  3.8 

81    64 
9.3  9.5 
2.9  3.2 

64 
10.5 
3.8 

55 
11.8 
3.2 

41 

11.1 

5.4 

40 
14.0 
4.2 

33    18    16 
15.214.017.3 

4.3  4.1   6.0 

45    32    25 
16.416.018.3 

5.4  4.9  5.3 

65 
15.1 
4.0 

86 
15.5 
3.8 

(2)  Dependence  on  age.  Though  Rusk  cau  find  no  definite 
relation  between  speed  and  age  in  the  genus-species  test,  the 
figures  reported  by  both  Pyle  and  Miss  Norsworthy  show  a 
general  improvement  with  age,  despite  certain  exceptions. 
Miss  Norsworthy's  test  was  obviously  too  easy  for  ages  of  11 
and  above,  so  that  any  tendency  toward  improvement  beyond 
11  was  obscured.  Rusk's  negative  result  is  explicable  partly  by 
his  instructions  against  haste  and  partly  by  the  small  number 
of  cases  he  tested. 

(3)  Dependence  on  sex.  Pyle's  averages  make  it  reasonable 
to  assume  a  slight  superiority  of  girls  over  boys,  since  they 
show  this  superiority  in  ten  of  the  age  groups. 

(4)  Feeble-minded  children,  according  to  Miss  Norsworthy's 
results,  are  distinctly  inferior  in  this  test  to  normal  children 
of  the  same  age :  only  9  per  cent,  reach  the  median  of  the  normal 
children;  only  16  per  cent,  reach  — 1  P.E.;  only  17  per  cent, 
reach  — 2  P.E.  of  normal  children  of  their  age. 


TEST  34  :  CONTROLLED  ASSOCIATION 


[4.45J    79 


C.      THE  OPPOSITES  TEST 

Materials.— (1)  For  individual  tests:  Split-second  Btop- 
watch.  Two  sets  of  20  cards  each  (exclusive  of  samples),  one 
set  of  easy,  and  one  of  moderately  difficull  stimulus  words. 
Paper  for  recording  limes,  responses  and  remarks.     (2)   For 

group  tests:  Stop-watch  or  special  Bee Is  clock.    Printed  forms 

containing  the  same  stimuli  (one  for  easy  and  one  for  difficull 
words)  and  provided  with  spaces  for  recording  the  20  asso 
dates. 

The  opposites  test  has  been  extensively  used  and  has  appeared  in  a 
variety  of  forms.  The  mosl  common  lists  are  printed  herewith.  They 
demand  a  few  words  of  explanation. 

Lists  I,  II  and  III  represent  the  standardized  lists  for  easy  oppi 
prepared  hy  Woodworth  and  Wells:  Lists  I  and  II,  which  arc  those  used 

by  Briggs  (his  Tests  43  and  44)  are  presut 1  to  he  of  equal  difficulty 

and  to  be  so  arranged  that  the  last  half  is  just  as  difficult  as  the  flrsl 
halt  ;  List  III.  which  is  the  set  of  easy  opposites  here  recommended, 
is  a  selection  of  the  20  easiest  opposites  in  Lists  I  and  II. 

MATERIAL  USED  BY  VARIOUS  INVESTIGATORS  IN   THE  OPPOSITES  TEST. 


II 


III 


IV 


long 

soft 

white 

far 

up 

smooth 

early 

dead 

hot 

asleep 

lost 

wet 

high 

dirty 

east 

day 

yes 

wrong 

empty 

top 


north 

high 

good 

sour 

summer 

outside 

out 

out 

quick 

weak 

white 

tall 

good 

slow 

big 

after 

yes 

loud 

above 

above 

white 

sick 

north 

light 

slow 

top 

happy 

large 

wet 

false 

rich 

good 

like 

dark 

rich 

rich 

front 

up 

sick 

love 

front 

glad 

tall 

long 

thin 

open 

hot 

empty 

summer 

east 

war 

new 

day 

many 

come 

big 

above 

male 

love 

friend 

best 

weary 

cloudy 

patient 

careful 

stale 

tender 

Ignorant 

doubtful 

serious 

reckless 

join 

advance 

honest 

gay 

forget 

calm 

rare 

dim 

difficult 


80    [446]  ASSOCIATION,    LEARNING    AND    MEMORY 


VI 

VII 

VIII 

IX 

clay 

great 

succeed 

tender 

asleep 

hot 

strict 

animated 

absent 

dirty 

tardy 

proficient 

brother 

heavy 

sleepy 

impoverish 

best 

late 

suspicious 

cruel 

above 

first 

rigid 

generous 

big 

left 

suave 

haughty 

backwards 

morning 

sinful 

silly 

buy 

much 

conservative 

insignificant 

come 

near 

refined 

disastrous 

cheap 

north 

pride 

miser 

broad 

open 

despondent 

result 

dead 

round 

imaginary 

hindrance 

land 

sharp 

beautiful 

strength 

country 

east 

injurious 

innocent 

tall 

known 

diligent 

busy 

son 

something 

sell 

remember 

here 

stay 

sure 

increase 

less 

push 

active 

preserve 

mine 

nowhere 

venturesome 

belief 

List  IV,  one  of  the  oldest  and  most  employed,  appears  in  several  pub- 
lished articles  and  texts  by  Thorndike;  it  forms  one  of  Simpson's  easy 
opposites,  has  been  used  by  Miss  Norsworthy  in  an  extensive  study,  and 
constitutes  the  regular  test  list  prescribed  by  Pyle.  The  opposite  of 
this  list,  i.  e.,  bad,  inside,  etc.,  has  been  used  by  Bonser,  by  Miss  Nors- 
worthy and  by  Mrs.  Squire. 

List  V  is  proposed  by  Pyle  as  harder  opposites  for  use  with  adults. 

List  VI  has  been  used  by  Bonser,  by  Mrs.  Squire  and  (with  two 
changes)  by  Simpson. 

List  VII  has  been  used  by  Bonser,  by  Mrs.  Squire  and  (with  some 
changes)  by  Simpson  and  by  Carpenter.  It  also  appears  in  Thorndike's 
tests. 

Lists  VIII  and  IX  are  two  of  four  hard  opposites  used  by  Simpson. 

The  easy  opposites  test  may  be  regarded  as  fairly  well  standardized 
so  far  as  choice  of  material  is  concerned.  But  List  III,  which  has  been 
selected  as  best  for  younger  children,  will  prove  too  easy  for  most  S's 
of  10  years  or  over,  and  we  have  no  lists  of  moderately  difficult  and  very 
difficult  opposites  that  have  been  tested  by  very  extensive  experimenta- 
tion. The  set  proposed  by  the  author  has  been  selected  from  the  50 
terms  used  by  Hollingworth,  who,  in  turn,  selected  them  from  a  list  of 
200  tested  by  Woodworth  and  Wells  and  showing  association  times  of 
from  2  to  5  sec.  The  attempt  has  been  made  on  the  basis  of  the  author's 
trials  with  college  students  and  with  the  assistance  of  Dr.  Hollingworth 
to  select  20  hard  opposites  that  shall  be  relatively  easy  to  score  and  that 
shall  be  of  closely  similar  difficulty. 

Method. — Use  the  easy  opposites  for  younger  children,  the 
more  difficult  ones  for  children  over  10  or  thereabouts  and  for 
adults.  Instruct  8  as  follows :  "Each  one  of  these  cards  has 
printed  on  it  a  wrord.  As  soon  as  I  uncover  a  card,  look  at  the 
word  on  it  and  then,  quickly  as  you  can,  say  aloud  a  word  that 


TEST  34  :  CONTROLLED  ASSOCIATION  NT 

means  just  the  opposite  to  it.  For  instance,  if  the  card  should 
have  on  it  the  word  dirty,  you  would  say  clean.  We  will  try 
three  sample  cards  firsl  to  make  sure  you  understand."  With 
the  hard  opposites  follow  the  procedure  outlined  for  the  part- 
whole  tesl  with  regard  to  the  use  of  the  sample  cards,  timing, 
recording  responses,  etc. 

Variations  of  Method. — Follow  the  suggestions  given  for 
variations  of  method  in  the  part-whole  test,  with  due  regard  for 
changes  in  sample  terms,  etc. 

When  the  harder  opposites  are  used,  particularly  with  adults, 
the  instructions  may  he  altered  to  put  special  stress  upon  the 
giving  of  an  exact  opposite,  i.  e.,  the  emphasis  may  he  placed 
upon  quality  rather  than  upon  speed  of  performance.  Further, 
it  is  well  to  instruct  8  that  opposites  formed  by  the  use  of  the 
prefixes  un  or  in,  or  of  the  suffix  less,  will  not  be  allowed,  save 
when  the  root  of  the  stimulus  word  is  changed;  thus,  for  in- 
stance, inharmoni&us  would  not  be  accepted  for  harmonious, 
nor  unsafe  for  safe,  hut  Jiarmless  would  be  accepted  for  dun 
yerous.  The  split-second  watch  may  then  be  used  to  advantage 
by  rejecting  responses  that  are  incorrect,  and  recording  the  time 
of  various  responses  made  before  the  proper  one  is  given. 

To  test  the  effect  of  practise,  the  cards  may  be  shuffled  and 
the  series  repeated  any  desired  number  of  times,  as  in  the  pro- 
cedure adopted  by  llollingworth  in  his  tests  of  the  effect  of 
caffein. 

Treatment  of  Data. — This  may  follow  the  directions  given 
for  the  part-whole  test.  With  older  children  and  adults,  how- 
ever, when  the  instructions  have  emphasized  quality  rather  than 
speed,  the  scoring  of  responses  should  be  decidedly  rigorous, 
and  it  may  be  well  for  many  purposes  to  permit  only  a  single 
correct  opposite  and  allow  nothing  for  'partly  correct'  re- 
sponses.4 


'Mrs.  Squire  counted  as  errors  all  responses  that  were  not  accurate 
and  gave  no  credit  for  adverbs  when  adjectives  wore  correct,  nor  even 
for  approximate  opposites,  urging  that  "there  is  no  mental  test  in  which 
an  approximate  is  less  permissible." 

•  The  important  thing  is.  of  course,  that  E  should  settle  upon  the  type 
of  mental  activity  that  is  to  be  demanded  (speedy  approximate  re- 
sponses or  rigorous  precision)  and  then  adjust  instructions  and  scoring 
to  measure  this  aspect  of  the  associative  process.     In  using  the  cards 


82    [448]  ASSOCIATION,   LEARNING   and    memory 

Results. —  (1)  Norms.  The  average  time  of  response  of  adult 
college  students  is  given  by  Woodwortli  and  Wells  as  1.11  sec., 
P.E.  .04,  range  0.85  to  1.40,  for  the  easy  list.  The  norms  ob- 
tained by  Pyle,  Miss  Norsworthy,  Mrs.  Squire  and  Carpenter 
are  reproduced  in  Tables  67,  (58,  69  and  70,  respectively:  these 
figures  may  not  be  compared  directly  with  one  another  on  ac- 
count of  differences  in  materials,  scoring  and  other  conditions, 
but  they  will  serve  as  bases  for  conclusions  with  regard  to  the 
dependence  of  performance  in  the  test  upon  age,  sex  and  other 
factors. 

Pyle's  norms  represent  the  average  number  of  opposites  that  could  be 
written  in  60  sec.  in  a  group  test,  using  a  list  formed  of  the  opposites 
of  List  IV,  above. 

Miss  Norsworthy's  figures  refer  to  the  number  of  correct  associates 
to  the  opposites  of  List  IV  (her  First  List)  and  to  List  IV  itself  (her 
Second  List),  given  by  about  Gil  normal  children  of  both  sexes.  Here 
the  maximal  possible  score  is  evidently  20. 

Mrs.  Squire's  figures  show  the  average  time  in  sec.  and  the  average 
number  of  correct  responses  (rigid  scoring)  for  small  groups  of  peda- 
gogically  unretarded  children  for  three  separate  lists  (our  Lists  VI,  VII 
and  the  opposites  of  IV,  respectively).  For  the  standards  proposed  by 
her  for  each  age,  see  the  original  article,  pp.  500-506. 

Carpenter's  results  are  based  upon  what  he  describes  as  practically 
the  same,  terms  as  our  List  VII.     The  figures  show  the  errors  and  the 

TABLE    67 
Correct  Associates  Written  in  60  Sec.    Opposites  Test  (Pyle) 


SEX 

AGE 

8 

9 

10     11       12 

13 

14 

15 

16 

17 

18 

ADULT 

Cases 

33    65 

60 

61 

72 

65 

61 

40 

33    17    22 

62 

Male 

Aver. 

9.0   8.4 

7.5 

10.9 

11.5 

14.5 

14.5 

16.0  18.6  17.6  22.4 

22.1 

A.  D. 

3.3  3.0 

3.1 

2.9 

2.9 

4.5 

4.3 

5.2   5.3   3.3  3.2 

3.3 

Cases 

33 

56 

77 

65 

74 

73 

58 

49    48    27    26 

85 

Female 

Aver. 

8.0 

7.6 

10.9 

11.2 

13.9 

14.9  17.4 

17.3  19.3  21.4  23.4 

23.4 

A.  D. 

4.0  2.9 

3.1 

3.0 

3.6 

4.3 

3.9 

5.1   4.2  4.9  3.1 

4.0 

for  individual  testing  it  will  be  found  convenient  to  list  upon  the  back 
of  each  card  the  different  words  that  are  given  by  S's,  together  with  the 
score  previously  determined  upon  for  each  word. 

For  a  more  elaborate  system  of  equating  speed  and  quality  of  work 
the  reader  may  consult  Simpson  (10,  pp.  14,  16). 

The  work  of  Woolley  and  Fischer  contains  many  valuable  suggestions 
for  the  evaluation  of  Various  responses  in  the  opposites  test  (see  22a, 
PP.  216-221). 


TES1  ol  :  CONTBOLLED  ASSOCIATION 


[449 J  83 


time  in  sec.  obtained  in  individual  tests  In  which  the  terms  were  read 
by  E  and  responded  to  orally  by  8.  His  records  are  confessedly  "of  little 
value  below  ;ige  9."  Since  the  times  were  taken  with  an  ordinary  watch 
and  merely  express  the  total  time  occupied  by  the  test  tor  each  child, 
it  is  Impossible,  of  course,  to  derive  from  them  any  precise  Idea  of  ib<> 
association  time,  strictly  speaking. 


TABLE    68 
Correct  Associates  of  a  Possiblt   20.    Opposites  Test  (Norsworthy) 


LIST 

AGE 

8 

9 

10 

n 

12 

18        14 

15 

16 

ADULTS 

Opp. 

of  IV 

Median 
P.  E. 

7.4 

2.0 

9.0  9.912.513.514.0 

2.0   3.0  3.0  2.6  2.5 

1 

14.5  15.0  15.5 
2.3   2.3   2,3 

20.0 
1.0 

IV... 

Median 
P.  E. 

8.7 
1.4 

9.511.513.114.710.4 
1.7   2.2  2.9   3.6  2.4 

17.8  18.5  19.0 
2.0  2.0  2.0 

20.0 
1.0 

TABLE    G9 
Correct  Associates  and  'Huns.    Opposites  Test  (Squire) 


Words  Time 


Words  Time 


LIST  iv  (opp.) 


Words  Time 


AVER.   FOR   ALL 


Words  Time 


6 

7 
8 
9 
10 
11 
12 
13 


8.5 
13.1 
16.1 
17.6 
17.1 
19.3 
19.5 
19.4 


192.3 

155.6 

110.3 

103.7 

87.1 

79.3 

81.2 

72.5 


11.3 

143.3 

11.6 

120.0 

10.5 

15.0 

137.7 

14.5 

117.6 

14.2 

17.1 

98.2 

16.7 

104.9 

16.6    1 

16.5 

101.1 

17.7 

98.4 

17.2 

17.7 

87.0 

18.2 

76.2 

17.6 

19.0 

102.0 

19.6 

68.3 

19.3 

19.2 

85.5 

19.2 

63.2 

19.3    | 

19.2 

61.5 

19.2 

65.0 

19.3 

151.8 

136.9 

104.8 

101.7 

83.4 

83.2 

63.2 

66.3 


TABLE   70 
Errors  and  Times.     Opposites  Test  (Carpenter) 


AGE                              7 

8                9               10              11       i       12              13 

it 

Cases 7 

Aver.  Time         ;  118 
Aver.  Errors  ___]      4.1 

1                 1 

19         46     j    50         41 
118        108        101         98 
4.2        4.5        4.7        4.8 

44 
82 
3.8 

58 
79 
3.6 

49 
71 
3.2 

84    [450]  ASSOCIATION,    LEARNING    AND    MEMORY 

(2)  Dependence  on  age.  The  evidence  from  these  four  tables, 
as  well  as  from  the  results  of  Woolley  and  Fischer,  though 
not  guaranteeing  in  every  instance  a  uniform  increase  in 
quantity  or  quality  of  performance  from  year  to  year,  un- 
doubtedly justifies  the  generalization  that  both  speed  of  find- 
ing opposites  and  accuracy  of  the  responses  made,  improve 
with  age.  The  failure  of  this  tendency  to  appear  in  the  tables 
published  by  Bonser  is  apparently  due  to  the  inadequacy  of  his 
test  material  for  bringing  out  the  abilities  of  the  older  pupils. 

(3)  Dependence  on  sex.  In  all  comparisons  of  groups  the 
superiority  of  females  over  males  is  readily  noted.  Thus,  girls 
surpass  boys  in  10  of  Pyle's  12  age-groups;  Hollingworth  (9) 
found  women  faster  than  men  in  naming  opposites  both  before 
and  after  practise;  Burt  and  Moore  report  that  in  one  group 
only  29.2  and  in  another  only  42.2  per  cent,  of  the  boys  reached 
the  median  mark  of  girls;  Bonser  found  girls  superior  to  boys 
in  every  school  grade,  though  it  is  significant  that  in  most  of 
his  groups  more  boys  than  girls  were  found  in  the  highest 
quartile.  Woolley  and  Fischer  report  a  slight  superiority  of 
girls,  but  add  that  "it  is  too  small  to  be  considered  very  sig- 
nificant." 

(4)  Dependence  on  scliool  grade.  Bonser  found  a  general 
progress  from  grade  to  grade,  coupled  with  a  decrease  of  varia- 
bility; his  results  are  somewhat  affected  by  the  fact  that  his 
test  was  too  easy  for  use  much  beyond  the  GA  grade.  On  the 
other  hand,  the  curves  of  distribution  published  by  Chambers 
show  that  it  is  impossible  to  distinguish  7th  grade  and  8th 
grade  pupils  by  their  curves  of  distribution  in  this  test. 

(5)  Dependence  on  intelligence.  With  the  exception  of  Win- 
teler's  conclusion  (based  on  the  study  of  only  8  boys,  divided 
into  two  contrasted  groups)  that  the  opposites  test  is  less  well 
adapted  than  other  forms  of  controlled  association  to  reveal 
differences  in  intelligence,  the  general  opinion  of  experimenters 
is  decidedly  favorable  to  its  use  for  this  purpose.  Mrs.  Squire 
found  that  pedagogically  retarded  pupils  show  a  distinctly 
lower  general  average  performance  with  more  irregularity  in 
speed  and  quality  of  work  than  the  unretarded.     Bonser  ob- 


TEST  'Si  :  CONTBOLLBD  Assori.w  [ON  [451  J    85 

Gained  a  correlation  of  0.85  between  opposites  and  the  average 

Btanding  in  all  the  tests  used  by  him  to  measure  ability  to  rea- 
son, and  declares  that  "the  opposites  test  seems  to  be  a  test  of 
rather  superior  merit  as  a  single  test  for  this  general  form  <>f 
mental  ability."'  In  Simpson's  interesting  study  of  two  con- 
trasted groups  of  adults  (17  of  superior,  and  20  of  quite  in- 
ferior general  ability)  the  two  groups  were  completely  sepa- 
rated by  both  the  easy  and  the  hard  opposites  tost,  /.  < ..  no 
person  in  the  poorer  group  did  as  well  as  tin'  poorest  in  the  good 
group.  Simpson  estimates  the  true  correlation  with  the  intelli- 
gence of  people  in  general  to  be  as  high  as  0.82  for  the  easy, 
and  0.96  for  the  hard  opposites  test. 

At  Bedford  Hills  Reformatory,  Miss  Weidensall  reports  a 
correlation  of  0.79,  P.E.  .03,  between  rank-order  in  opposites 
and  the  estimate  of  intelligence  of  the  women  made  by  the 
director  of  the  Industrial  School  of  the  institution.  The  corre- 
lation would  have  been  higher  under  more  favorable  conditions 
for  the  testing  and  the  estimating.  Again,  the  institutional 
women  who  had  received  the  most  schooling  showed  almost 
exactly  the  same  ability  as  the  Cincinnati  15-year-old  working- 
girls  tested  by  Woolley  and  Fischer,  whereas  the  Bedford  Be- 
low-Grade  Group  (schooling  less  than  Grade  5B)  were  de- 
cidedly inferior  to  the  Bedford  Grade  Group  and  to  the  Cin- 
cinnati girls. 

(6)  The  feeble-minded  and  delinquent.  No  feeble-minded 
child,  according  to  Miss  Norsworthy's  figures,  reached  the 
median  performance  of  normal  children;  only  about  one  in  a 
hundred  were  better  than  — 1  P.E.  and  only  about  six  in  a  hun- 
dred were  better  than  — 2  P.E.  of  normal  children  of  their  age. 

Reference  has  just  been  made  to  the  comparison  of  delinquent 
women  and  school  girls.  Dr.  Weidensall's  results  show  also 
that  the  Bedford  women,  taken  as  a  group,  are  slightly  inferior 
to  the  Cincinnati  15-year-old  working  girls  at  the  upper  quar- 
tile,  7.5  per  cent,  less  accurate  at  the  median  and  2G.2  per  cent, 
less  accurate  at  the  lower  quartile.  It  is  of  interest  to  note 
that  the  opposites  test  proved  somewhat  difficult  of  compre- 
hension for  these  S's,  so  that  special  explanations  had  to  be 
contrived  and  repeated  as  well  before  the  testing  could  proceed. 


86    [452]  ASSOCIATION,.    LEARNING    AND    MEMORY 

(7)  Dependence  on  practise.  Hollingworth  (9)  put  11  men 
and  8  women  through  100  trials  with  opposites,  and  also  tested 
their  speed  in  reading  the  stimuli  and  the  responses  from  a 
typewritten  sheet.    The  results  were: 

Initial  naming  (average  of  trials  2-6),  men  113.5  sec,  women  99.7  sec. 
Final  naming  (average  of  trials  96-100),    "       36.3    "  "        31.2     " 

Reading  directly  (average  of  5  trials),      "       18.5     '  16.1 

It  is  seen  that  extensive  practise  increases  the  speed  of  the 
associative  process  markedly,  but  that  even  after  95  trials  a 
considerable  part  of  the  time  taken  in  the  test  is  occupied  by 
the  process  of  association  as  over  against  the  time  needed  in 
reading  and  uttering  the  words.  The  speed  attained  by  indi- 
viduals in  the  test  by  reading  correlates  with  the  speed  ob- 
tained in  the  regular  test  of  naming  the  opposites  by  approxi- 
mately 0.60. 

(8)  Dependence  on  fatigue.  In  the  course  of  his  experi- 
ments upon  the  effects  of  caffein  Hollingworth  (8a)  was  able 
to  observe  the  effects  of  time  of  day  upon  the  opposites  test 
under  unusually  favorable  conditions  as  regards  elimination 
of  the  practise  error.  In  preliminary  experiments  (tests  made 
at  intervals  of  two  or  three  hours)  and  also  in  more  intensive 
experiments  (15  trials  between  10.30  A.  M.  and  10.30  P.  M.) 
there  appeared  a  distinct  reduction  in  speed  of  naming  oppo- 
sites as  the  day  passed,  and  the  fatigue  effect  was  more  pro- 
nounced in  this  test  than  in  any  others  that  were  tried.  After 
the  second  trial  the  initial  records  of  the  day  were  never  sur- 
passed. 

(9)  Dependence  on  race.  In  opposites,  and  also  in  other 
controlled  association  tests  (genus-species,  part-whole),  Pyle 
(13a)  found  negro  children  of  both  sexes  less  than  half  as 
efficient  as  white  children. 

(10)  Reliability.  Simpson  found  internal  correlations 
between  his  various  lists  amounting  to  from  0.53  to  0.93  for 
his  easy  and  to  from  0.60  to  0.97  for  his  hard  list.  The  test 
may,  therefore,  be  regarded  as  possessing  a  good  degree  of  re- 
liability, particularly  since  Simpson's  lists  contained  some 
words   of   unequal    difficulty    and    are    presumably    less    well 


I  EST  :'>1  :  CONTROLLED  ASSOCIATION  [453      81 

adapted  for  testing  than  the  liste  which  have  here  been  pro- 
posed for  standard  use. 

(11)  Various  correlations.  In  the  rase  of  the  women  al  Bed- 
ford Hills  Reformatory,  whose  work  was  decidedly  slow  on  the 
whole  the  correlation  between  speed  and  accuracy  was  so  high 
(0.83,  P.E.  .03,  for  those  who  needed  no  help  in  reading  or 
writing)  thai  the  scoring  was  finally  'lone  in  terms  of  accuracy 
alone. 

Correlations  determined  by  Simpson  between  the  easy  and 
the  hard  opposites  and  other  tests  were  as  follows:  with  the 
Ebbinghaus  completion  test  0.72  and  u.s:,.  with  memory  for 
words  0.65  and  0.84,  with  the  A  test  0.50  and  0.58,  with  memory 
for  i  assages  0.50  and  0.70,  with  adding  0.56  and  0.70,  respect- 
ively. These  figures  represent  "estimated  true  correlations  for 
people  in  general,"  as  based  upon  raw-  correlations  figured  for 
his  own  adult  *S"s,  corrected  for  attenuation  and  other  probable 
sources  of  error.5 

Thorndike  found  a  very  high  correlation,  0.90,  P.E.  about 
.05,  between  the  capacities  of  twins  in  this  test. 

Notes. — Special  comparisons  of  dilVerent  forms  of  controlled 
association  have  been  made,  among  others,  by  Watt,  Busk  and 
Winteler.  The  average  association  limes  reported  by  Watt  are 
L.364  sec.  for  part-whole,  1.454  for  whole-part,  1.418  for  co-ordi- 
nate, 1.54S  for  superordinate  and  L.859  for  subordinate  rela- 
tions. General  agreement  appears  in  the  conclusions  reached 
by  Rusk,  who  lists  the  several  varieties  of  association  tested  by 
him  in  the  following  order,  passing  from  the  easiest  to  the 
hardest:  whole-part  and  part-whole,  co-ordination,  free  con- 
cretes, superordination,  subordination,  free  abstracts,  causal. 
Winteler  concludes  that  when  superordinate,  subordinate.  CO 
ordinate,  species-genus  and  opposite  relations  are  tried  with 
school  children,  the  first  takes  the  most  and  the  last  the  least 
logical  power. 

The  so-called  'B-method'  of  Ries,  a  test  in  which  8  is  given  a 
number  of  nouns  representing  causes  and  asked  to  name  an- 


'See  the  original  article  for  t lie  raw  correlations  and  for  correlations 
with  other  tests  than  those  here  cited.  I'm-  Bonser's  correlations,  which 
refer  to  various  special  tests,  Bee  bis  monograph,  p.  96. 


88    [454]  ASSOCIATION,    LEARNING   AND    MEMORY 

other  noun  representing  a  related  effect,  yielded  in  his  hands 
extraordinarily  high  correlations  with  estimated  intelligence, 
0.85,  0.86,  0.91  and  0.94  in  different  groups.  The  method  is 
endorsed  by  Meumann  (11,  432f.),  who  also  reports  excellent 
results  achieved  with  it  by  Oksala,  in  Finland.  Meumann  de- 
clares that  the  capacity  to  seek  out  causes  or  effects  affords  a 
decisive  index  of  degree  of  intelligence  in  children  of  from 
about  10  to  14  years,  and  perhaps  older.  We  have  made  attempts 
to  use  this  test  in  the  educational  laboratory,  both  at  Cornell 
University  and  at  the  University  of  Illinois,  and  have  en- 
countered so  many  difficulties  in  the  preparation  of  material, 
and  especially  in  scoring,  as  to  render  the  method  unsatisfac- 
tory, even  for  mature  college  students. 

Another  relatively  easy,  though  strictly  controlled  associa- 
tion test  is  that  known  as  the  backward-alphabet  test.  This 
has  usually  been  conducted  by  asking  8  to  name,  or  to  write,  as 
rapidly  as  possible,  the  letters  that  precede  f,  k,  s,  p,  id,  I,  e,  r, 
d,  oy  v,  j,  n,  t,  and  h.  For  comparison,  and  to  obtain  a  rough 
notion  of  #'s  familiarity  with  the  sequence  of  the  alphabet  in 
general,  this  test  might  be  supplemented  by  another  in  which  8 
was  required  to  state  the  letters  that  follow  another  series  of 
15  letters.6 

REFERENCES 

(1)  A.  R.  Abelson,  Tests  for  mental  deficiency  in  childhood.  The 
Child,  No.  3:  1912,  1-17.  See  also:  The  measurement  of  mental  ability  of 
'backward'  children.    BrJPs,  4:  1911,  268-314. 

(2)  H.  A.  Aikins,  E.  L.  Thorndike  and  Elizabeth  Hubbell.  Corre- 
lation among  perceptive  and  associative  processes.    PsR,  9 :  1902,  374-382. 

(3)  F.  G.  Bonser,  The  reasoning  ability  of  children  of  the  fourth, 
fifth  and  sixth  school  grades.  ColmnbiaConEd,  No.  37.  New  York,  1910. 
Pp.  113. 

(4)  T.  H.  Briggs,  Formal  English  grammar  as  a  discipline.  Teachers 
College  Record,  14 :  1913,  251-343. 

(5)  C.  Burt  and  R.  C  Moore,  The  mental  differences  between  the 
sexes.    JEPd,  1 :  1912,  273-284,  355-38S. 

(6)  D.  F.  Carpenter,  Mental  age  tests.    JEdPs,  4  :  1913,  538-544. 

(7)  W.  G.  Chambers,  Individual  differences  in  grammar  grade  chil- 
dren.   JEdPs,  1 :  1910,  Gl-75. 

(8)  H.  L.  Holliugworth.  The  influence  of  caffein  on  mental  and  motor 
efficiency.  ArPs(e),  No.  22  (ColumhiaConPhPs,  20:  No.  4).  New  York, 
1912.    Pp.  166.  ,       t, 

(8a)  H.  L.  Holliugworth,  Variations  in  efficiency  during  the  working 
day.    PsR,  21 :  1914,  473-491. 

"On  the  use  of  this  test,  see  Aikins,  Thorndike  and  Hubbell. 


TE8T   34.\  :   ANALOGIES  [455]    80 

(9)  II.  L.  Hollingwortb,  Articulation  and  association.  JEdPa,  0: 
1915,  99-105. 

(10)  E.  Junes,  Some  results  of  association  tests  among  delinquent 
girls.    PsB,  10:  1913,  78-79. 

(11)  E.  Meumann,  Vorlesungen  zur  Einftihrung  In  die  exp.  Pada- 
gogik,  2d  ed.,  Vol.  II.    Leipzig,  1913,  especially  us  i:::: 

(12)  Naomi  Norsworthy,  The  psychology  of  mentally  deficient  chil- 
dren. New  York,  1908.  Pp.  111.  (Much  of  this  material  is  also  given 
in  JPsAsth,  12:  1907-08,  3-17.) 

(13)  W.  II.  Pyle,  The  examination  of  school  children.  New  York, 
1913.    Pp.  70. 

(13a)  W.  II.  Pyle,  The  mind  of  the  negro  child.  School  ant  Soci*  ty, 
1  :  1915,  357-300. 

(14)  G.  Ries,  Beitriige  zur  Methodik  der  Intelligenzprfifung.  ZP8, 
56:  1910,  321-343. 

(  15)  It.  It.  Rusk,  Experiments  on  mental  association  in  children. 
/.'/•/ /•-•,  3:  1910,  349-385. 

(10)  B.  R.  Simpson,  Correlations  of  mental  abilities.  GolumbiaCon 
Ed,  No.53.    New  York,  1912.    Pp.  122. 

(17)  Carrie  R.  Squire,  Graded  mental  tests.  JEdPs,  3:  1912,  303- 
380,  430-443,  493-500,  especially  430-443  and  500-506. 

(18)  E.  L.  Thorndike,  Measurements  of  twins.  ColvmbiaOonPhPa, 
1905.     Pp.  04. 

(19)  E.  L.  Thorndike,  Educational  psychology,  2d  ed.,  New  York. 
L910.  Pp.  248.  See  also  his  Principles  of  teaching.  New  York.  1906, 
and  his  Introduction  to  the  theory  of  social  and  mental  measurements, 
I'd  ed.    New  York,  1913.     Pp.  277. 

(20)  II.  J.  Watt,  Exp.  Beitriige  zu  einer  Theorie  des  Denkens. 
AtGsPs,  4:  1905,  289-430. 

(20a)  Jean  Weidensall,  The  mentality  of  the  criminal  woman.  To 
appear  in  EdPsMoii. 

*(21)  .7.  Winteler,  Exp.  Beitriige  7.u  einer  Begabungslehre.  EPd,  2: 
1-48,  147-247,  especially  207-239. 

(22)  R.  S.  Woodworth  and  F.  L.  Wells,  Association  tests.  PsMon, 
13:  1911,  Whole  No.  57.    Tp.  85. 

(22a)  Helen  T.  Woolley  and  Charlotte  R.  Fischer,  Mental  and 
physical  measurements  of  working  children.  PaMon,  No.  77,  IS:  1914. 
Pp.  247.     Especially  121:5-227. 

(23)  S.  Wyatt,  The  quantitative  investigation  of  higher  mental 
processes.    BrJPs,  0:  1913,  109-133. 


TEST  31A 

Analogies.1 — Iu  Test  33  the  associations  to  be  formed  are  left 
entirely  <<>  -s"s  choice,  are  unrestricted;  in  Test  34  the  associa- 
tion is  restricted  to  a  single  form  of  relationship  throughout 
any  one  series.  In  the  analogies  test  there  exists  restriction. 
but  the  kind  of  restriction  varies  from  one  stimulus  to  another 


'The  author  is  Indebted  to  Professor  D.  Kennedy  Fraser,  of  Cornell 
University,  for  the  arrangement  of  this  tost. 


90    [456]  ASSOCIATION,    LEARNING   AND    MEMORY 

within  the  series  of  terms.  The  kind  of  restriction,  moreover, 
is  not  indicated  to  8  in  the  instructions,  but  is  supplied  to  him 
by  the  test  material  itself,  and  must  be  apprehended  by  him 
from  that  material.  Each  stimulus  in  the  series- consists  of 
three  terms;  the  first  and  second  terms  illustrate  the  relation 
in  question;  the  third  term  is  the  first  of  a  pair  which  are  to 
stand  in  the  same  relation  one  to  another  as  the  first  and  sec- 
ond terms.  £'s  problem,  then,  is  to  find  the  appropriate  fourth 
term.  Because  the  relation  varies  from  stimulus  to  stimulus, 
the  test  is  sometimes  referred  to  as  the  'mixed  relations  test,' 
as,  for  example,  by  Woodworth  and  Wells  (6),  who  say  that  it 
tests  'flexibility  of  mental  performance'  and  also  'skill  in  han- 
dling associations.'  Burt  (2),  from  whom  the  term  'analogies' 
is  borrowed,  holds  that  the  test  involves  "perception,  implicit 
or  exi  ilicit,  of  the  relation  and  reconstruction  of  the  analogous 
one  by  so-called  relative  suggestion."  The  test  is  recommended 
by  these  authors,  as  well  as  by  Wyatt  (7),  and  it  needs  little 
trial  to  show  that  it  has  many  possibilities,  particularly  in 
view  of  the  chance  that  it  affords  of  constructing  series  of 
stimuli  of  varying  difficulty. 

Materials.— (1)  For  individual  tests:  Split-second  stop- 
watch. Three  sets  of  20  cards  each,  affording  tests  of  three 
grades  of  difficulty.  Sample  set  of  7  cards  for  preliminary 
trials.  Prepared  blank  for  registering  times  and  incorrect  an- 
swers. (2)  For  group  tests  or  variant  form  of  individual  tests: 
stop-watch  or  special  seconds-clock.  Printed  forms  for  each  of 
the  three  sets  of  stimuli,  provided  with  spaces  for  recording  the 
responses. 

The  stimuli  chosen  for  these  series  are  taken  from  a  large  number  of 
stimuli  originally  employed  by  Burt  in  work  with  the  analogies  test  in 
England.  They  have  been  selected  on  the  basis  of  fairly  extensive  trial 
with  children  and  high-school  and  college  students.  If  further  materials 
are  desired,  E  will  find  it  more  profitable  to  turn  to  the  two  lists  of  20 
stimuli  each  that  are  published  by  Woodworth  and  Wells  (also  repro- 
duced by  Briggs  (1) )  than  to  construct  lists  of  his  own,  as  only  by  actual 
trial  can  the  feasibility  of  a  given  set  of  terms  for  use  in  this  test  be 
demonstrated. 

Method. — Show  S  one  of  the  sample  cards  and  instruct  him 
as  follows :  "On  each  of  these  cards  there  are  three  words,  as 
on  this  one.    As  vou  see.  there  is  relation  between  the  first  and 


test  IUa  :    ANALOGIES  [457]    91 

the  second  word.  You  are  also  given  a  third  word,  and  I  want 
you  to  And  a  fourth  word  which  shall  have  the  same  relation 
to  the  third  as  the  second  has  to  the  first.  Work  as  rapidly  as 
von  can.  and  say  the  fourth  word  aloud  as  soon  as  yon  know 
what  it  should  be.  Tims,  in  this  first  card  the  fourth  word 
is  what?  In  the  cards  thai  follow  the  relation  does  riol  remain 
the  same  as  this  one.  but  varies  from  one  card  to  another."  It 
this  explanation  seems  sufficient,  proceed  with  the  other  sample 
cards,  saying:  "1  will  try  these  sample  cards  now  to  make 
sure  that  you  understand." 

Follow  the  instructions  given  in  Test  o4,  part-whole  test, 
including  the  use  of  the  warning  -now.'  the  taking  of  times 
during  the  sample  set,  the  correction  of  wrong  responses,  etc., 
save  that  it  is  unnecessary  to  record  &?s  response  unless  it  be 
a  word  which  is  not  provided  for  upon  the  prepared  form.  In 
ordinary  testing  E  should  pass  to  the  next  card  whenever  8  is 
unable  to  give  a  response  within  30  sec.  Whether  List  A,  List 
B,  or  List  C,  or  some  combination  of  them  shall  be  used  will 
depend  upon  #'s  age  and  ability  and  upon  the  time  at  E'a  dis- 
posal. 

Variations  of  Method. — Follow  the  suggestions  for  variant 
methods  given  for  the  part-whole  test. 

Treatment  of  Data. — This  may  be  based,  in  general,  upon 
the  instructions  already  given  for  the  part-whole  test  and  for 
the  opposites  test. 

The  English  investigators  have  attempted  a  somewhat  finer  scoring 
of  quality  of  response  than  we  have  recommended.  Thus,  Burt  scored 
1  for  each  correct  response,  %  Cor  fair  and  Vz  for  poor  responses,  and 
O  for  omissions.  Wyatt  gave  4,  3,  2,  1  or  0  for  responses  grading  from 
fully  correct  to  omissions.  This  elaborate  scoring  is  doI  needed  Cor  most 
of  the  terms  in  our  lists,  for  in  quite  the  majority  of  cases  there  is  bul 
one  single  correct  response.  In  the  other  cases  the  use  of  the  split-second 
watch  in  individual  testing  permits  E  to  wait  until  the  corred  response 
is  given  and  secure  a  direct  measure  of  the  time  needed  for  this  response. 
while  the  time  at  which  the  first  (erroneous)  response  is  made  can 
also  he  put  on  record  as  an  indirect  measure  of  >S's  general  accuracy. 

Results— (1)  A  general  idea  of  the  times  that  may  be  ex- 
pected by  the  use  of  these  three  lists  may  be  gained  from  the 


92    [458]  ASSOCIATION,   LEARNING    AND    MEMORY 

results  that  have  beeu  obtained  by  their  use  iu  a  limited  num- 
ber of  cases  (Table  71).  The  averages  exceed  the  medians  on 
account  of  the  occasional  very  long  association  times  which 
appear  with  nearly  all  $'s.  The  average  time  reported  for  their 
lists  by  Wood  worth  and  Wells  (about  a  dozen  college  and 
graduate  students,  using  the  method  of  exposing  the  entire 
list)  is  3.14  sec,  P.E.  .13,  with  a  range  for  individual  averages 
of  from  2.33  to  4.40  sec. 

TABLE    71 

Speed  in  Sec.  for  Correct  Responses  in  the  Analogies  Test  (Fraser) 


LIST 

A* 

LIST    B* 

LIST  C 

Group 

Cases 

Median 

Aver. 

Median         Aver. 

Median        Aver. 

College 

Adults 

High-school 
Girls 

8 
19 

30 

1.8 
2.0 

2.4 

2.36 
2.64 

3.16 

3.0 

4.38 

3.4          6.51 

"Lists  A  and  B,  at  the  time  these  figures  were  secured,  contained  2-"» 
stimuli  each.  The  omitted  ones  do  not  alter  the  conditions  enough,  how- 
ever, to  invalidate  these  records  ;is  norms. 

More  extended  use  of  the  Woodworth  and  Wells  tests  by 
W.  V.  Bingham,  to  whom  I  am  indebted  for  advance  figures 
from  the  results  secured  with  200  freshmen  at  Dartmouth  Col- 
lege, has  yielded  the  following  percentile  distribution  for  the 
analogies  test  (average  time  in  see.  per  response,  based  on  two 
trials  of  10  responses  each)  : 


Poorest  10       20       30       40       50       60       70       80       90    Best 

5.49  3.98     3.69     3.31     3.03     2.85     2.67     2.52     2.36     2.06     1.35 


(2)  Dependence  on  age.  While  sufficient  data  are  lacking 
to  present  figures  for  various  ages,  there  is  a  clear  difference  in 
the   speed  of  $'s  of  grammar-school,   high-school   and   college 


i  i  -i    34A  :    A.NALCH  |  159  J    93 

Btanding  when  List  A  is  used.    Similarly,  Lisl  B,  and  more  esp< 
<  ially  List  C,  proves  loo  difficult  for  younger  S's. 

(3)  Dependence  on  sex.  Burl  found  an  advantage  <>t  L5  per 
cent,  in  favor  of  the  girls  at  the  Wallasley  School,  Liverpool, 
i.  c,  only  35  per  rent,  of  the  boys  reached  the  median  perform- 
ance of  girls.  In  Other  tests  at  the  Bolt  Secondary  School. 
however,  the  average  performances  of  the  two  sexes  were  vir- 
tually identical.  No  sex  difference  appeared  in  our  tests  of 
Cornell  University  students. 

(4)  Dependence  on  intelligence.  Wyatt,  working  with  the 
time  limit  method  on  groups,  found  that  the  analogies  test 
afforded  the  highest  correlations  with  intelligence  of  any  of 
the  tests  he  tried,  save  the  completion  test.  His  correlations 
amount  to  0.62  in  one  and  0.80  in  another  group.  Burt's  tests 
at  the  Holt  School  gave  a  correlation  between  the  results  of 
analogies  and  intelligence  of  0.50  in  the  individual  test  and  0.52 
in  the  group  test;  his  tests  at  the  Wallasey  School  gave  again 
a  correlation  of  0.50  (see  Burt  and  Moore). 

(5)  Reliability.  Burt's  figures  show  that  the  analogies  test 
possesses  a  good  degree  of  reliability,  as  its  coefficient  of  inter- 
nal correlation  figured  in  different  trials  0.58,  0.71  and  0.92. 

Notes. — The  analogies  test  appears  to  be  better  suited  than 
other  tests  of  association  to  bring  out  individual  differences  in 
quickness  of  adaptation  to  the  task  demanded.  Thus,  in  the 
case  of  one  high-school  girl,  the  average  association  time  for 
the  first  half  of  the  list  was  4.83  sec,  for  the  second  half  only 
2.19  sec.  The  inference  that  this  8  was  naturally  slow  in  adapt 
ing  herself  to  new  situations,  but  was  able  to  work  efficiently 
when  once  adapted,  was  afterward  confirmed  by  the  reports 
secured  from  her  teachers  of  her  performance  in  her  school 
tasks,  especially  in  geometry. 

AVhen  &'s  are  tested  by  the  standard  method  of  .securing  tne 
time  for  each  response,  it  is  often  instructive  to  plot  a  rough 
frequency  curve,  with  the  second  as  a  unit.  A  comparison  of 
the  distribution  of  the  times  for  different  S's,  as  in  the  following 
sample,  shows  clearly  individual  differences  in  steadiness  and 
consistency  of  performance  as  well  as  differences  in  general 
tendency  toward  fast  or  slow  rates  of  mental  activity. 


94    [4b'0j  ASSOCIATION,    LEARNING    AND    MEMORY 

Sample  Distribution  for  Two  College  Students,  List  0 


SECONDS                12 

3 

4 

5        6 

7 

8 

9 

10  + 

MEDIAN 

AVER. 

Subject  D__ 
Subject  G  — 

1 

0 

9 
4 

3 
3 

4 
1 

0 
3 

1 
2 

1 

2 

0 

1 

1 

Oil          2.9               3.91 
13!       5.6              5.67 

It  is  also  instructive  to  make  notes  of  $'s  general  attitude  to- 
ward the  test,  whether  confident  or  hesitating,  hurried  or  tran- 
quil, etc.,  and  to  compare  these  attitudes  with  the  quantitative 
results. 

REFERENCES 

(1)  T.  H.  Briggs,  Formal  English  grammar  as  a  discipline.  Teachers 
College  Record,  14 :  1913,  251-343. 

(2)  C.  Burt,  Experimental  tests  of  higher  mental  processes  and  then- 
relation  to  general  intelligence.    JEPd,  1 :  1911,  93  112. 

(3)  C.  Burt,  The  experimental  study  of  general  intelligence.  Child 
Study,  4 :  1911,  14-15. 

(4)  C.  Burt  and  R.  C.  Moore,  The  mental  differences  between  the 
sexes.    JEPd,  1 :  1912,  273-284,  355-388. 

(5)  R.  S.  Woodworth,  The  consciousness  of  relation.  Essays,  philo- 
sophical and  psychological,  in  honor  of  William  James,  1908,  485-507. 

(G)  R.  S.  Woodworth  and  F.  L.  Wells,  Association  tests.  PsMon,  13: 
1911,  Whole  Number  57.    Pp.  85. 

(7)  S.  Wyatt,  The  quantitative  investigation  of  higher  mental  proc- 
esses.   BrJPs,  6 :  1913,  109-133. 

TEST  35 

Controlled  association:  Computation. — The  solution  of  simple 
arithmetic.il  problems  in  addition,  subtraction,  multiplication, 
and  division  may  be  considered  as  essentially  dependent  upon 
the  accuracy  and  rapidity  with  which  the  appropriate  associ- 
ative processes  are  executed.  Computation  is,  therefore,  a 
test  of  controlled  association  in  which  the  restriction  of  the 
associative  sequence  is  complete,  in  which  only  a  single  out- 
come is  correct.  But  numerous  subsidiary  activities  are,  of 
course,  involved.  Thus,  the  solution  of  arithmetical  problems 
with  the  aid  of  ■  paper  and  pencil  demands,  besides  associative 
activity,  both  visual  perception  and  motor  activity,  while  men- 
tal computation  imposes  an  additional  tax  by  necessitating  the 
holding  in  mind  of  the  problem  itself  and  of  the  various  steps 
in  its  solution. 


TEST   35:    COMPUTATION)  l^Gl]    95 

Because  of  this  implication  of  perception,  movement,  an  in 
tion,  retention,  and  perhaps  other  forms  of  mental  activity^ 
as  well  as  simple  associative  activity,  the  computation  test  has 
been  employed  not  merely  for  the  special  purpose  of  studying 
the  nature  and  course  of  associative  processes,  bu1  also  for  the 
more  general  purpose  of  investigating  menial  efficiency  ai  large 
{gcistifje  Leistungsfahigkeit).     Oehrny  for  example,  \\h<>  was 
one  of  the  first  to  use  computation  as  a  mental  test,  Bought  t<> 
study  individual  differences  in  the  nature  of  associative  proc 
esses;  Aikins.  Thorndike,  and  Bubbell,  Brown,  Burt,  Simpson; 
Hollingworth,  and  Krueger  and  Spearman  to  study  the  correla 
tion  of  specific  mental  functions;  Thorndike  to  determine  the 
relative  influence  of  heredity  and  enviroumenl    lipon   mental 
efficiency ;  Reis  t<»  compare  the  ability  of  normal,  pa  rah  t  ic,  and 
hebephrenic  children;  Jones  to  investigate  the  effeel  of  bodilj 
■posture,  Vogt  the  effect  of  distraction,  and  Hollingworth  the 
effect  of  caffein  upon  mental  efficiency;  Winch  and  Starch  to 
investigate  the  transfer  of  special  drill.    l>ut  the  commonest 
application  of  the  computation  test  has  been  made  in  the  for- 
mulation of  the  curve  of  mental  efficiency,  or  the  work-curve, 
i  .1  rl>>  itskurve),  with  special  reference  to  the  influence  of  prac 
tise,  rest-pauses,  exercise,  and  similar  factors  upon   the  menial 
efficiency  of  adults,  and  especially  of  children,  during  a  school 
day.    This  use  of  the  test  is  illustrated  in  the  work  of  Ami. 
Bellei,   Bischoff,   Bolton,    Burgerstein,   Ebbinghaus,   Friedrichj 
Heck,  lleiiman,  Holmes,  Katzen-Ellenbogen,  Kafemann,  Keller, 
Kemsies,   Laser,   Lindley,   Marsh,   Martin.   Ordahl,    Robinson, 
Schultze,    Specht,    Teljatnik,    Thorndike,    Wells.    Weygandt, 
Winch  and  others.1 

Addition,  multiplication,  and  both  in  alternation,  have  been 
more  popular  forms  of  computation  than  subtraction  or  divi 
sion.  With  all  four  forms  varied  types  o|  problems  hafe  been 
used.  These  variations  in  the  arrangement  of  the  lest  natu- 
rally affect  its  outcome.  The  most  important  types  of  test  are 
illustrated  herewith.    Beside  the  types  that  are  shown,  Winch 

'A  major  portion  of  these  studies  are  the  aired  or  Indirect  develop- 
ments of  the  special  technique  of  the  adding  experiment  as  Formulated 
by   Kraepelin  and  his  followers  (see  the  various  volumes  of  the 
chologische  Arbeiten  and  Kraepelin's  summary  (27), 


96    [462]  ASSOCIATION,    LEARNING    AND    MEMORY 

and  others  have  employed  miscellaneous  arithmetical  problems,2 
Reis  had  his  fif's  add  mentally  for  1  min.  by  7's  or  by  12's,  while 
Hollingworth  has  used  a  form  of  test,  also  recommended  by 
Woodworth  and  Wells,  in  which  a  constant  number  is  added 
(or  subtracted)  from  a  given  list  of  numbers. 

Examples  of  Material  Used  in  Computation  Tests 


A 

B 

C     4    2 

8 

3 

29954654317         E42          F492 

2 

4 

7    9 

2 

9 

38382655139            +79             4-763 

6 

1 

1    1 

0" 

•1 

etc. 

9 

3 

7 

5 

D 

G 

H  64293643194831457627       1  982        J  fH        K  28 

4 

2 

95799 

93 

4-38682725423585791858      —469       —27         X  8 

8 

6 

86967 

68 

9 

4 

32687 

41 

L  363        M  47        N  918        0  7986        R  4)799 

5 

3 

84799 

25 

X6           X89        X  579        X  4523 

1 

4 

95976 

52 

7 

6 

34797 

5 

1 

97864 

P  428423995479253314325       Q  254 ) 4059234 ( 

2 

5 

98945 

xi 

6 

4 

87824 

3 

2 

68792 

5 

1 

79867 

1 

2 

88896 

3 

3 

97745 

9 

6 

39799 

2 

5 

48970 

1 

3 

89043 

3 

6 

67354 

0 

5 

54628 

9 

1 

91176 

8 

2 

90253 

3 

5 

2 

7 

6 

2 

8It  is  hardly  necessary  to  allude  to  the  development  and  use,  particu- 
larly by  Courtis,  of  special  sets  of  tests  for  measuring  the  abilities  of 
school  children  in  the  fundamental  operations  of  arithmetic,  the  solving 
of  arithmetical  problems,  copying  figures  and  the  like.  Similar  tests 
for  algebra  and  geometry  have  been  announced  recently  by  other  investi- 
gators. Tests  of  this  variety  are,  of  course,  aimed  at  the  determination 
of  specific  pedagogical  attainments  and  differ,  therefore,  in  scope  and 
method  from  those  here  under  consideration.  For  an  account  of  the 
Courtis  tests,  with  results  of  their  application  to  a  large  group  of 
school  children,  see  Courtis  (12). 


DMPOTATH  I]    97 

i  \n  .\.\.\  K-ic 

Iddiiion 

a.  Vertical  series  of  l-place  numbers,  arranged  to  avoid  repetitions 
and  pairs   adding  to  10.     S'B   add   continuously   and   drop   hack   to  units 

when  each  hundred  is  reached,  or  add  by  pairs,  either  orally  or  writing 
down  the  unit  figure  of  each  Bum.  The  pairs  are  sometimes  taken  so 
that  each  digit   is  used  twice,  thus  S  adds  1  and  2,  '1  and  3,  3  and  4,  etc, 

and  sometimes  so  that  each  digit  is  ased  once,  as  l  and  -,  :;  and  4,  etc. 
Oehrn,  Vbgt,  and  others  working  under  Kraepelin  used  columns  of  as 
many  as  T.imio  of  such  digits.  Krueger  and  Bpearman  used  70,  grouped 
by  10's  as  illustrated.    .Marsh  used  similar  columns  of  15  or  25  digits. 

B.  Vertical  column  of  24  l-place  numbers,  using  1  to  6  only.  Used 
by  Jones,  who  had  8  add  aloud  while  he  himself  followed  with  a  cheek 
list. 

C.  Horizontal  series  of  l-place  pairs  of  digits,  a  modification  of  the 
Kraepelin  l-place  series  in  order  to  make  possible  the  examination  of 
i  lie  accuracy  of  each  addition.  The  unit  figure  of  the  sum  is  the  only  one 
i .corded,  as  illustrated  in  the  first  four  problems.  Used  by  Sehulze,  and 
apparently  also  by  Bbbinghaus  and  by  Vogt. 

I  >.    Twenty  5-plaee  numbers.    Used  by  Thorndike. 
K.    Two  2-place  aumbers.    Dsed  by  Teljatnik. 

F.  Two  3-place  numbers.     Dsed  by  Keuisies  for  mental  addition. 

G.  Five  2-place  numbers.  Twenty  such  problems  were  given  and  2 
min.  allowed  for  computation.  Used  by  Thorndike  and  by  Aikius,  Thorn- 
dike  and  Ilubbell.  Four  longer  columns  (25  numbers  in  each)  are  used 
in  the  Woodworth  and  Wells  constant-increment  test. 

II.  Two  20-place  numbers.  Used  by  Burgerstein,  Laser,  Priedrich, 
and  Holmes.  The  last-named  investigator  published  elaborate  rules  for 
the  construction  of  these  problems  in  such  a  way  as  to  avoid  the  exten- 
sion of  errors  in  'carrying.'  She  used  4  blanks  with  16  such  problems 
on  each  blank. 

Subtraction 

I.    Two  3-place  numbers.    Used  by  Kemsies  for  mental  subtraction. 
J.    Two  2-place  numbers,  to  be  written  on  the  blackboard  (Teljatnik). 

Multiplication 

K.  Two-place  multiplicand,  l-place  multiplier.  Used  by  Kemsies  for 
mental  computation,  and  by  Ebbinghaus  for  written  group  tests. 

L.     Three-place  multiplicand,  l-place  multiplier.    Used  by  Kemsies. 

M.  Two-place  multiplicand,  2-place  multiplier.  Used  by  Keller,  and 
by  Marsh  with  the  digits  1,  2,  5,  and  9  excluded. 

N.  Three-place  multiplicand,  3-place  multiplier.  Used  by  Keller  for 
written,  and  by  Thorndike  for  mental  computation. 

O.  Four-place  multiplicand  and  multiplier.  Used  by  Thorndike  and 
others  both  for  written  and  for  menial  computation.  The  multiplicand 
is  usually  a  combination  of  6,  7,  S,  and  9;  the  multiplier  of  2,  3,  4,  and  5. 

P.  Twenty-place  multiplicand,  l-place  multiplier.  Used  by  r.urger- 
Btein,  Laser,  and  Friedrich,  with  the  restriction  of  the  multiplier,  in 
most  tests,  to  2,  3,  4,  5,  or  6. 

Division 

Q.  Three-place  divisor,  7-place  dividend.  Four  blanks  of  10  problems 
each  were  used  by  Bellei  for  an  hour's  work. 

R.  One-place  divisor,  3-place  dividend.  Used  by  Kemsies  for  mental 
computation. 


98   [464]         association,  learning  and  memory 

There  are  certain  advantages  and  certain  disadvantages  in 
each  of  these  forms  of  material.  In  general,  E  must  select  that 
form  of  test  that  best  suits  the  conditions  under  which  he 
works. 

Materials. — Stop-watch,  preferably  split-second.  Printed 
forms,  containing  problems  in  addition  and  multiplication. 
For  group  tests,  the  special  seconds  clock. 

Five  forms  have  been  prepared  for  this  test :  others  may  be  prepared 
by  11  as  desired. 

A.  Addition  test:  several  thousand  digits  in  vertical  columns  with  a 
line  separating  each  10  digits,  after  Model  A.  This  form  may  be  used 
with  children  or  with  adults,  and  either  for  short  series  or  for  continu- 
ous adding,  after  the  Kraepelin  method,  after  the  plan  of  Krueger  and 
Spearman,  or  after  the  method  of  adding  pairs. 

B.  Addition  test  with  3G  problems,  patterned  after  Model  G,  but  con- 
taining 10,  in  place  of  5  numbers  each.  This  can  be  used  also  for  tests 
in  which  a  constant  number  is  added  or  subtracted. 

C.  Addition  test,  patterned  after  Model  C  (Schulze's  method),  and 
specially  recommended  for  younger  S's. 

D.  Addition  test,  patterned  after  Holmes,  Model  H,  and  virtually 
identical  with  the  material  used  by  Burgerstein,  Laser,  and  Friedrich. 

E.  Multiplication  test,  after  Model  P,  as  used  by  Burgerstein,  Laser, 
and  Friedrich. 

Method. —  (1)  General  determination  of  S's  ability  may  be 
carried  on  with  any  one  of  the  forms.  The  following  general 
principles  should  be  kept  in  mind:  (a)  Individual  tests  are 
usually  more  satisfactory  than  group  tests,  (b)  Any  computa- 
tion work  that  is  so  easy  that  the  mental  operations  can  pro- 
ceed as  fast  as  the  results  can  be  written  (as  Form  C  for 
adults)  would  better  be  given  individually  and  arranged  so 
that  S  may  announce  the  results  orally  and  E  check  them  off 
upon  a  prepared  key;  and  in  general,  care  must  be  taken  that 
the  recording  of  results  shall  not  fall  to  S  unless  it  is  certain 
that  his  associations  Avill  neither  be  delayed  nor  disturbed  by 
the  process  of  recording,  (c)  Group  tests  with  competent  $'s 
may  be  most  satisfactorily  carried  on  by  the  work-limit  method 
with  the  aid  of  the  seconds  clock,  (d)  Group  tests  by  the  time- 
limit  method  should,  as  a  rule,  be  terminated  at  such  a  time 
that  the  fastest  $  in  the  group  can  no  more  than  complete  the 
task. 

In  accordance  with  these  general  principles,  Forms  B,  D  and 
R  will  be  found  adapted  for  group  tests  or  for  individual  tests 


ii  v,   35    i  ompi  rATioN  [466]  99 

with  the  recording  of  the  figuring  done  bj  8  himself.  E  can 
take  the  time  for  performing  any  specified  number  of  the  prob 
Ions,  or  he  may  also,  especially  h\  asing  a  splil  second  Btop 
watch,  secure  the  exact  time  for  solving  each  problem  without 
interrupting  fl's  work  nntil  the  entire  test  form  is  finished. 

For  the  constant-increment  test  8  is  given  Form  B,  printed 
side  down.  He  is  instructed  at  the  signal  'now'  to  add  a  speci- 
fied number  to  each  number  found  in  the  columns  when  he  turns 
over  the  form.  The  numbers  eommonh  used  have  been  either 
4  or  17.  The  test  may  be  repealed  with  other  increments,  and 
these  may  be  so  chosen  as  to  secure  wide  variations  in  diffi- 
culty, as  by  assigning  easy  constants,  like  1  or  2,  or  more 
difficult  ones  than  17.  Again,  the  assignment  may  be  to  sub 
tract  a  given  number." 

Form  C  affords  a  particularly  good  test  of  skill  and  accu 
racy  in  the  addition  of  units,  especially  when  conducted  orally. 
Record  the  time  for  each  row  horizontally.    Adults  will  make 
but  few  errors,  and  these  they  may  be  allowed  to  pass  over  or 
to  correct,  whichever  way  they  may  prefer. 

Form  A  may  be  given  by  a  variety  of  methods.  In  particular. 
&  may  write  down  the  sums  for  each  section  of  10  digits  and  /.' 
record  the  time  for  each  section  until  one  page  of  the  material 
has  been  covered  :  or  8  may  add  orally  by  pairs  while  E  watches 
for  errors  upon  a  prepared  check  sheet,  and  also  notes  upon  it 
the  place  reached  by  S  at  given  time-intervals,  ;is  m  each 
minute  or  each  half-minute;  the  adding  in  this  case  may  be 
done  by  either  of  the  methods  of  grouping  the  pairs  mentioned 
above  (Explanatory,  Addition,  A). 

(2)  For  those  who  wish  to  arrange  an  experiment  for  the 
special  determination  of  S's  susceptibility  in  practise,  fatigue, 
etc.,  some  suggestions  may  be  found  in  the  following  develop 
meiit  of  the  method  of  Kraepelin  illustrated  in  the  work  of 
Specht  and  of  Bischoff.  To  carrj  ou1  ihis  experiment  fully.  8 
adds  by  pairs,  10  mil),  per  day.  on  each  of  12  successive  days." 


2For  timing  work  by  columns  a  convenient  arrangement  is  to  cut  them 
out  of  the  form  and  paste  them  singly  upon  small  stiff  cards. 

"It  would  seem  possible  to  condense  this  time,  either  by  taking  fewer 
days  or  by  adding  during  several  sittings  on  a  given  day.  though  it  Is 
impossible  to  predict  whether  the  results  would  then  be  comparable  i" 
those  reported  below  from  Speeht  and  P.isehoff. 


100    [466J         ASSOCIATION;    LEARNING    AND    MEMORY 

The  pairs  are  added  by  the  1  and  2,  2  and  3  method  and  the  unit 
figure  only  of  each  sum  is  written  down  by  S.*  A  bell-stroke 
or  other  signal  is  given  at  the  end  of  each  minute,  and  8  marks 
by  a  horizontal  stroke  the  point  he  has  reached  at  the  signal. 
On  the  1st,  3d,  5th,  7th,  9th  and  11th  days  there  is  introduced 
between  the  5th  and  the  Gth  minute  of  the  adding  a  rest-pause 
of  5  min. :  on  even-numbered  days  8  adds  directly  through  the 
10  min.  without  pause. 

In  carrying  out  this  special  form  of  addition  test,  or  in  fact,  in  carry- 
ing out  any  test  which  is  designed  to  measure  efficiency  under  various 
conditions— different  periods  of  the  day,  after  recesses,  after  gymnastics, 
after  eating,  etc. — it  is  evident  that  E  must  bear  in  mind  the  possibility 
that  a  number  of  different  factors  may  enter  to  affect  the  performance, 
and  that  to  measure  any  single  factor,  like  fatigue,  the  influence  of  these 
other  factors  must  be  excluded  or  allowed  for.  The  most  serious  of  these 
disturbing  factors  are  practise,  excitement,  ennui  and  carelessness. 

A  common  method  for  cancelling  out  practise  is  to  divide  S's  into  two 
equivalent  groups  on  the  basis  of  a  preliminary  test,  and  to  administer 
one  set  of  problems  early  to  the  first,  and  late  to  the  second  group  (if, 
for  instance,  fatigue  is  to  be  investigated),  the  other  set  late  to  the  first, 
and  early  to  the  second  group. 

In  studying  the  work  curve,  some  E'a  have  used  computation  both  as 
the  test  and  as  the  work  to  induce  fatigue,  practise,  etc.;  others  have 
used  computation  as  a  test  of  efficiency,  but  have  allowed  S  to  follow  in 
the  main  the  regular  work  of  the  school  session.  In  the  first  procedure, 
computation  (usually  addition)  is  pursued  more  or  less  continuously 
for  an  hour,  or  even  for  several  hours ;  in  the  second  procedure,  the  com- 
putation itself  occupies  but  a  short  time,  relatively,  say  from  1  to  10 
min.,  and  is  repeated  at  intervals  of  an  hour  or  more,  while  8  meantime 
takes  up  his  regular  tasks,  indulges  in  physical  activity,  or  rests,  as  E 
may  direct. 

In  illustration,  Vogt,  Oehrn,  and  other  disciples  of  Kraepelin,  have 
kept  their  &'s  adding  continuously  for  several  hours;  Holmes  used  4 
periods  of  adding  of  9  min.  each,  with  4-min.  rest-pauses,  Burgerstein  4 
periods  of  10  min.  each,  with  5-min.  pauses.  Typical  illustrations  of  the 
second  procedure  are  supplied  by  the  investigations  of  Laser  and  of 
Ebbinghaus,  who  introduced  10-min.  computation  tests  at  the  beginning 
of  the  school  day  and  once  an  hour  thereafter,  and  also  by  the  studies  of 
Heck  and  of  Robinson.  Ebbinghaus  is  inclined,  however,  to  recommend 
0-min.  tests  as  being  equally  serviceable  for  the  determination  of  effi- 
ciency and  less  likely  to  develop  ennui  and  carelessness.  Offner  (35, 
p.  48)  favors  short  tests  for  similar  reasons  and  also  for  the  partial 
avoidance  of  the  practise-error. 

Treatment  of  Data.— Computation  tests  yield  two  measures 
of  efficiency— speed  (or  quantity  of  work)   and  accuracy   (or 

4It  would  seem  to  the  author  much  preferable  to  use  oral  adding,  but 
here,  again,  it  is  not  possible  to  predict  what  effect  such  an  alteration 
of  method  might  have  upon  the  results. 


TEST  35:   COMPUTATION  [Wi \    MM 

quality  of  work).  Many  investigators,  particularly  when  exam- 
ining the  effect  of  practise,  fatigue  and  similar  factors  upon  per- 
formance, have  found  it  best  to  keep  the  two  measures  sepa 
rate.  Some  investigators,  Like  Teljatnik,  have  considered  qual- 
ity  of  work  only;  more  often,  qualitative  differences,  being 
relatively  small,  have  been  disregarded  and  performance  has 
been  ranked  by  speed  of  work  only.  The  combining  of  speed 
and  accuracy  into  a  single  score  representing  oe1  efficiency  may 
be  attempted  by  some  of  the  methods  proposed  in  Tesl  26.  Or, 
an  arbitrary  penalty  may  be  contrived  for  each  error  and  the 
time  consumed  may  be  increased  by  these  penalties.  Thus, 
Simpson,  who  used  material  Like  our  Example  G,  computed 
the  final  score  of  his  >S"s  by  adding  to  their  actual  time  1<»  sec. 
for  each  error.  An  &  who  added  10  examples  in  55  sec.  and  got 
seven  answers  right  and  three  wrong  would  then  be  given  a 
final  score  of  85  sec. 

Quantity  of  work  is  indicated  by  elapsed  time  when  using  the 
individual  method,  and  by  the  number  of  problems  solved 
(sometimes  by  the  number  of  figures  written  in  the  results)  in 
the  time-limit  method. 

Quality  of  work  is  generally  regarded  as  directly  propor- 
tional to  the  percentage  of  correct  solutions.  Inaccuracy  is 
most  often  taken  in  terms  of  the  number  of  errors  committed, 
less  often  in  terms  of  the  number  of  errors  plus  the  number 
of  corrections  made  by  8.  The  simplest,  but  the  least  desirable 
way  to  compute  errors  is  to  score  one  error  for  every  wrong 
figure  in  the  result.  In  the  case  of  certain  problems,  however, 
a  single  error  in  computation  may  affect  more  than  one  figun 
in  the  result."'  For  reliable  results,  these  complex  errors  must 
be  examined  and  the  score  adjusted  to  indicate  exact  ly  the  num- 
ber of  real  errors  of  computation. 

For  the  special  experiment  patterned  after  Specht  and 
Bischoff  more  elaborate  treatment  of  data  is  culled  for.  ill 
The  gain  in  sums  added  the  6th  min.  as  compared  with  the  5th 
min.,  in  its  relation  to  the  sums  added  the  5th  min.  I /'.  c  the 
per  cent,  of  gain)  is  computed  both  for  all  the  days  with  pause 


•"The  problems  in  Form  t>  (Example  Hi  are  intentionally  arranged  '•' 

reduce  this  error. 


102     [468]  ASSOCIATION,,    LEARNING    AND    MEMORY 

and  for  all  the  days  without  pause,  and  the  difference  between 
these  two  relative  gains  is  found.  (2)  The  number  of  sums 
added  in  the  first  five  and  in  the  second  five  minutes,  both  on 
days  with  and  on  days  without  pause,  is  treated  in  the  same 
manner.  (3)  The  difference  between  the  sums  added  on  the  2d 
iind  the  Gth  minute  on  days  with  pause,  taken  as  a  per  cent,  of 
gain  over  the  2d  minute,  forms  the  coefficient  of  practise.  (4) 
To  find  the  coefficient  of  fatigue  » 

let  F  =  the  required  coefficient  of  fatigue, 
P  =  the  coefficient  of  practise, 

A  =  the  sums  added  the  first  5  min.  without  pause, 
B  =  the  sums  added  the  second  5  min.  without  pause,  and 
b  =  the  sums  theoretically  added  the  second  5  min.  under 
practise,  but  not  under  fatigue. 
AX  (100  +  P)  100  X  (b  — B) 

Then  b  =  and    F  =    . 

100  b 

Thus,  if  P  —  8.8,  A  =  1226,  B  =  1141,  then  b  =  1333.9  and 
F  =  14.46.  (5)  The  difference  between  the  sums  added  in  the 
2d  min.  and  in  the  10th  min.  of  days  without  pause,  taken  as  a 
ratio  to  the  2d  min.,  affords  another,  and  in  some  respects,  a 
better  index  of  fatigue.  (6)  The  total  number  of  sums  added 
the  1st  5  min.  of  all  days  gives  T  (total  performance),  which 
affords  an  approximate  notion  of  fif'g  ability  to  add.  T  is  also 
made  the  denominator  of  a  fraction,  the  numerator  of  which  is 
the  total  number  of  additions  made  the  very  first  5  min.  The 
fraction  gives  some  indication  of  #'s  susceptibility  to  prac- 
tise. (7)  Another  index  of  susceptibility  to  practise  is  se- 
cured by  taking  the  average  of  the  gains  in  the  first  5  min. 
from  day  to  day  as  against  the  first  day  and  figuring  the  dif- 
ference as  a  ratio  to  the  first  5  min.  (1st  day).  Characteristic 
results  for  all  these  values  are  given  below. 

Kesults. —  (1)  Woodworth  and  Wells  report  the  average  time 
of  college  students  in  the  Kraepelin  form  of  adding  as  107.2 
sec,  range  65  to  164  sec.  The  same  authors  report  for  the  con- 
stant increment  test  (one  column  of  25  numbers)  adding  4: 
average  33.9,  range  24  to  49  sec;  subtracting  4,  average  41.1. 
i-ange  25  to  67  sec;  adding  17.  average  97.4,  range  62  to  158 


i    35  :    l  "M  PI   i  A  I  ION  [-t^J    103 

sec,  with  an  average  of  2.4  errors  in  the  last  form  of  teat 
These  figures  are  based  upon  a  \<r\  limited  number  of 
i  7  to  L0).  In  the  author's  laboratory,  tests  with  college  Btu 
dents  in  adding  50  sen  ions  of  10  digits  on  tin-  Kraepelin  form 
have  yielded  individual  averages  per  section  <»i'  from  5.8  to 
L3.7  sc.-..  while  the  aumber  of  corred  sections  has  ranged  from 
::i  to  4G. 

(2)   in  ;ill  c putation  icsis.  and  particularly  in  those  em> 

bodying  mental  multiplication,  there  arc  marked  iii<Hri<liKt! 
differences  in  speed  and  accuracy,  even  among  n's  of  the  same 
age  and  same  school  grade.  Tims,  Schulze's  besl  pupil  added 
more  thao  o  times  ;is  fasl  ;is  the  slowest  pupil  in  the  same 
class. 

i.".!  Dependence  on  sex.  There  is  evidently  no  decided  sex 
difference  in  computation,  since  the  results  of  various  investi- 
gators are  conflicting.  Burl  found  girls  slightly  slower  in 
multiplication  ;  Burl  and  Moore  reckon  that  or,  per  cent,  of  boys 
exceed  (he  ~><>  percent,  record  of  girls  in  adding  and  63  percent 
exceed  the  50  per  cent,  record  of  uirls  in  multiplication.  <>n 
the  other  hand.  Courtis'  New  York  results  show  that  girls  are 
slightly  hotter  than  hoys  in  the  fundamental  operations  of 
arithmetic.  Again,  Miss  Holmes  found  girls  slightly  better 
than  hoys,  and  the  conclusion  of  Fox  and  Thorndike  is  (hat  the 
girls  in  the  high  school  they  studied  were  aboul  •">  per  cent 
better  than  boys,  though  here  there  may  have  been  a  better 
grade  of  girls  selected  by  the  school.  In  the  solving  of  arith- 
metical problems,  however,  where  something  more  than  know  1 
•  due  of  the  fundamental  operations  is  involved,  the  work  of 
Courtis  and  of  Thorndike  (52)  shows  a  superiority  of  boys 
amounting  to  an  excess  of  some  in  per  cent,  in  the  distribution 
above  the  median  <d'  the  -iris.    "Koughly,  boys  are  aboul  half 

as  far  ahead  of  the  girls  in  the  same  grade  as  they  are  of  the 
boys  in  the  preceding  grade."  Keck  found  thai  hoys  fell  oil 
more  in  quality  of  work  in  the  afternoon  session  than  did  girls 
(4.23  vs.  1.00  per  cent.) — a  result  possibly  due  to  a  greater 
carelessness  on  the  part  of  the  boyfi 

(4)   Dependence  on  school  grade.     When  sufficiently  large 
groups  are  compared,  there  is,  of  course,  a  perceptible  differ 


104    [470]         ASSOCIATION,    LEARNING   AND    MEMORY 

ence  between  the  performance  of  one  grade  and  that  of  the 
grades  above  or  below  it,  but  this  difference  is  small  in  com 
parison  with  the  range  of  variation  within  any  grade,  and 
may,  on  that  account,  disappear  when  small  groups  are  com 
pared.  Thus,  the  curves  of  distribution  in  adding  reported 
by  Chambers  for  22  seventh  and  22  eighth  grade  pupils  can 
not  be  distinguished,  while  Courtis  generalizes  results  for  his 
multiplication  test  by  saying  that  "35  per  cent,  of  any  grade 
membership  will  exceed  the  average  score  of  the  next  higher 
grade:  also,  that  35  per  cent,  of  the  grade  membership  will  fall 
below  the  average  of  the  next  lower  grade"  (12,  p.  450) . 

(5)  Dependence  on  practise.  All  investigators  agree  that 
practise  produces  a  considerable  improvement  in  all  forms  of 
computation,  despite  the  fact  that  the  associative  connections 
concerned  have  been  long  established  and  often  used.  Holling 
worth,  who  used  the  constant-increment  test  (adding  17  to  50 
2-place  numbers)  found  that,  even  after  35  preliminary  trials, 
one  of  his  groups  reduced  their  average  time  from  102.7  to  61.2 
sec.  during  17  further  trials,  a  reduction  of  some  40  per  cent. 
Similarly,  the  19  university  students  reported  by  Thorndikc. 
who  added  daily  for  a  week  48  columns  of  ten  numbers,  effected 
a  median  reduction  in  time  of  about  31  per  cent.,  and  in  accu- 
racy of  about  29  per  cent.,  although  the  total  amount  of  time 
spent  in  the  work  was  only  about  one  hour  for  each  S.  Not 
all  these  S's  showed  such  practise  effects;  for  one  or  two  there 
was  no  improvement,  while  one  improved  as  much  as  50  per 
cent.  It  is  worth  noting  that  practise-improvement  is  shown 
by  those  who  stand  high  at  the  beginning  of  the  work  as  well 
as  by  those  who  stand  low  then.  The  same  result  has  been 
found  also  in  tests  of  29  boys  in  a  New  York  City  4th  grade 
school,  where,  according  to  Donovan  and  Thorndike,  those  most 
efficient  at  the  beginning  gained  on  the  average  as  much  or 
more  (in  gross  gains)  as  did  those  least  efficient  at  the  be- 
ginning. Wells'  tests  of  adults  (56)  lead  to  a  similar  con 
elusion.  On  the  whole,  however,  practise  in  adding  tends  to 
reduce  somewhat  the  initial  differences  between  the  *S"s,  whereas 
practise  in  mental  multiplication  seems  not  to  affect  much  the 
relative  differences  between   8%  from  which   Thorndike  con- 


TEST  35:   COMPUTATION  [  471  j    105 

eludes  that  the  abilities  demanded  in  mental  multiplication 
are  more  dependent  upon  original  capacity  than  are  those  de- 
manded in  adding.  Mrs.  Ordahl  found  that  practise  in  mental 
multiplication  produced  a  decided  gain  in  speed  without  mucb 
improvement  in  accuracy,  and  she  believes  that  the  improve 
ment  in  this  operation  resides  more  in  the  methods  of  handling 
the  task  than  in  the  facilitation  of  the  numerical  associations 
themselves.0 

The  question  of  the  transfer  of  practise  effects  in  computa- 
tion to  other  forms  of  mental  activity  has  been  studied  by 
Winch  and  by  Starch.  Winch  was  unable  to  decide  whether 
special  drill  in  computation  produced  an  increase  of  skill  in 
solving  arithmetical  problems;  there  appeared  to  be  a  transfer 
in  some  of  the  classes,  but  not  in  others.  Starch  found  that  a 
14-day  drill  in  mental  multiplication  developed  an  improve- 
ment of  from  20  to  40  per  cent,  in  other  arithmetical  operations, 
but  had  little  effect  upon  auditory  memory  span. 

(G)  Dependence  on  intelligence.  Burt  tested  English  school 
children,  aged  12,  to  determine  the  number  of  additions  or  mul- 
tiplications correctly  made  in  10  min.,  and  found  a  correlation 
with  intelligence  of  0.25  in  addition  and  of  0.41  in  multiplica- 
tion. Brown's  results  for  a  group  of  39  girls,  aged  11  to  12. 
show  no  correlation  between  school  grades  and  speed  or  accu 
racy  of  adding  and  a  correlation  of  only  0.10  between  speed 
of  adding  and  estimated  general  intelligence:  his  results  for  an- 
other group  of  40  boys  of  the  same  age  show  correlations  of 
0.28  between  speed  of  adding  and  school  marks,  of  0.24  between 
speed  of  adding  and  estimated  intelligence,  and  of  0.11  be- 
tween accuracy  of  adding  and  marks,  with  absence  of  correlation 
between  accuracy  and  estimated  intelligence.  Simpson  used 
adding  in  his  study  of  two  sharply-contrasted  groups  of  adults  ; 
the  test  separated  the  groups  fairly  clearly — only  10  per  cent, 
of  the  poor  group  reached  the  median  performance  of  the  good 
group.  Within  the  good  group  the  results  of  the  adding  test 
correlated  by  0.72  with  estimated  intelligence. 

(7)   Reliaoility.     Save  for  Burt's  figures   (0.50  for  adding 
and  0.55  for  multiplication),  the  internal  correlations  for  com- 


"Consult  ber  article  for  detailed  tables  and  introspective  reports. 


106    [472]         ASSOCIATION,    LEARNING    AND    MEMORY 

putation  tests  show  a  good  degree  of  reliability.  Krueger  and 
Spearman,  for  instance,  obtained  a  reliability  of  0.76,  Simpson 
of  0.76  for  his  good  group,  0.90  for  his  poor  group,  0.91  for 
both  together.  Brown,  who  worked  with  several  different 
groups,  reckons  the  reliability  for  speed  of  adding  at  0.68  to 
0.98  and  for  accuracy  of  adding  at  0.30  when  one  application 
of  the  test  is  made,  and  reliability  for  speed  at  0.81  to  0.99  and 
for  accuracy  at  0.36  to  0.71  when  the  scores  represent  amalga- 
mated results  of  two  applications. 

(8)  Correlations.  Aikins,  Thorndike,  and  Hubbell  compared 
efficiency  in  adding  with  efficiency  in  the  other  'association' 
tests  (misspelled  words,  cancellation  of  two  letters,  and  op- 
posites),  and  (by  a  special  method  of  estimating  the  index) 
found  the  quality  of  work  in  adding  and  quantity  of  work  in 
associating  correlated  to  a  degree  of  50  per  cent,  in  Sth-grade, 
and  20  per  cent,  in  5th-grade  pupils,  and  net  efficiency  in  adding 
and  net  efficiency  in  associating  correlated  to  a  degree  of  48  per 
cent.  Gn  the  other  hand,  the  percentage  of  error  in  adding  and 
in  the  other  association  tests  exhibited  no  correlation  or  one 
of  but  slight  degree. 

Thorndike's  study  of  mental  resemblances  in  twins  (47) 
showed  a  much  higher  correlation  of  ability  in  computation 
between  twins  than  between  siblings;  thus,  twins  aged  9-11 
years  revealed  a  correlation  of  0.90  in  adding,  and  0.91  in  mul- 
tiplication, and  twins  aged  12-14  years  a  correlation  of  0.54  in 
adding  and  0.69  in  multiplication :  taken  collectively,  the  index 
of  correlation  amounted  to  0.75  for  the  adding,  and  0.84  for 
the  multiplication  test. 

Fox  and  Thorndike  found  that  ability  to  add  correlated  to  a 
fairly  high  degree,  0.75,  with  ability  to  multiply,  but  only  to  a 
small  degree,  0.20  to  0.44,  with  ability  to  solve  fractions  or  to 
perform  other  arithmetical  problems.  They  conclude  that 
"ability  in  arithmetic  is  thus  but  an  abstract  name  for  a  num- 
ber of  partially  independent  abilities." 

These  results  do  not  agree  well  with  those  reached  by  Winch 
in  his  two  studies  of  the  transfer  of  drill  in  numerical  accu- 
racy, since  he  found  high  correlations  (0.68,  0.69  and  0.74)  be- 
tween accuracy  in  computation  and  in  arithmetical  reasoning. 


test  35:  COMPUTATION  [473]    107 

Harris  found  that  school  grades  in  algebra  and  in  geometry, 
as  recorded  in  19  representative  high  Bchools,  showed,  for 
nearly  1000  pupils,  a  correlation  of  0.45. 

Simpson  publishes  the  foil. .win-  "estimated  true  correla- 
tions r«>r  people  in  general"  with  efficiency  in  adding:  Ebbing- 
hans  completion  tesl  0.65,  hard  opposites  0.70.  easy  opposites 
0.56,  a-test  0.58,  memory  for  passages  0.42,  estimation  of  Lengths 
0.00.  The  extended  scries  of  intercorrelations  found  by  Brown, 
which  are  in  general  much  lower  than  those  of  Simpson,  will 
be  found  reproduced  in  Simpson  (41,  107f.)  as  well  as  in  the 
original  text  (5,  300-313,  31G). 

Krueger  and  Spearman  found  a  g 1  degree  of  correlation 

between  adding  and  pitch  discrimination  (raw  correlation 
0.07,  'corrected'  correlation  0.08,  'completed'  con-chit  ion  0.80) 
and  between  adding  and  the  Ebbinghaus  test  (raw  correlation 
0.79,  'corrected'  correlation  0.G8,  -'completed'  correlation  0.93). 

Hollingworth  (20)  has  studied  the  effect  of  a  long  scries  of 
trials  (over  200)  upon  the  correlations  between  adding  and 
various  tests;  the  following  are  typical  results: 


CO- 
ORDINATION 


DISCRIM. 
REACTION 


COLOR 
NAMING 


OPPOSITES 


1st  trial .45  .21 

203th  trial-         .57  .16 


.23  .26  .23 

.15  .76  .76 


(0)  Relation  of  speed  and  accuracy.  While  it  is  doubtless 
true  that,  for  a  given  individual  working  under  constant  condi- 
tions, an  increase  of  speed  tends  to  produce  an  increase  of 
errors,  it  is  equally  true  that  under  actual  working  conditions 
a  given  individual  may  show  an  increase  of  speed  coupled 
with  a  decrease  in  number  of  errors.  When  individuals  are 
compared,  it  is  found  that  the  faster  fif's  are.  on  the  whole,  also 
the  more  accurate  a8's.  In  six  of  his  groups  Brown  found  cor- 
relations between  speed  ami  accuracy  of  adding  ranging  from 
0.13  to  0.43,  P.E.'s  from  .07  to  .12.  With  small  groups  of  col- 
lege students  I  have  obtained  similar  positive  correlations  <>f 
0.19  in  the  case  of  adding  and  as  high  as  0.8G  for  mental  multi- 
plication. 


108    [474]         ASSOCIATION,    LEARNING    AND    MEMORY 

(10)  Mental  defectives.  Reis  found  that  with  paralytics  and 
hebephrenics  the  average  performance  was  less  and  the  varia- 
bility greater  than  with  normals.  Similarly,  Specht  says  that, 
though  there  appear  decided  individual  differences  in  fatigua- 
bleness  as  shown  by  the  adding  test  applied  to  normal  indi- 
viduals, a  still  greater  amount  of  fatiguableness  appears  when  it 
is  applied  to  patients  in  an  insane  hospital  selected  for  their 
tendency  toward  easy  fatiguableness  in  general.  I  have  combined 
the  data  furnished  by  Bischoff  .for  12  normal  $'s  and  by  Specht 
for  17  normal  and  6  insane  S's  when  tested  by  their  special 
form  of  the  Kraepelin  addition  test  and  scored  according  to  the 
directions  given  above  for  that  experiment.  The  results  are 
given  in  Table  72.  The  differences  between  the  two  groups  are 
readily  obvious  in  Factors  8  and  9,  which  reveal  tendency  to- 
ward fatigue,  and  in  Factors  10  and  11,  which  show  the  total 
amount  of  work  done.  Analogous  results  have  been  reported 
by  Katzen-Ellenbogen,  who  concludes  that  "the  average  curve 
of  epileptics  is  decidedly  different  from  the  normal  [curve] 
and  characteristic  of  epilepsy." 

TABLE  72 

Average  Scores  of  29  Normal  and  6  Insane  Subjects  in  the  Addition  Test 
(After  Speelit  and  Bischoff). 

Normals.  Patients. 

(1)  Per  cent,  gain  6th  over  5th  inin.,  with  pause. .       14.7  20.6 

(2)  Per  cent,  gain  6th  over  5th  inin.,  no  pause ■ — 1.0  — 3.9 

(3)  Difference  between  (1)  and  (2) 15.7  24.5 

(4)  Per  cent,  gain  2d  over  1st  5  inin.,  with  pause. .         4.4  — 0.3 

(5)  Per  cent,  gain  2d  over  1st  5  min.,  no  pause. . . .     — 5.0  — 11.4 

(6)  Difference  between  (4)  and  (5) 9.9  11.1 

(7)  Coefficient  of  practise 9.9  13.3 

(8)  Coefficient  of  fatigue —12.6  —21.3 

(9)  Per  cent,  gain  10th  over  2d  min.,  no  pause — 5.6  — 14.3 

(10)  Additions  1st  5  min.  in  1st  trial 172.3  87.5 

(11)  Total  additions  1st  5  min.  of  all  trials 3406.8        1157.6 

(12)  Progress  of  practise 11.1      .        2.0 

(11)  Miscellaneous  influences.  Hollingworth  (19)  used  add- 
ing among  other  tests  in  his  study  of  the  effects  of  caffein  and 
found  that  this  drug  produces  pronounced  stimulation  in  the 
processes  of  adding. 

Posture  was  found  by  Jones  to  affect  the  speed  of  adding; 
both  children  and  college  students  could  add  somewhat  faster 


.  35 .  .  omputai  i":'l   L09 

(approximately  3  to  s  per  cent.)  with  the  bodj  in  a  horizontal, 

than  with  the  body  in  a  vertical  position. 

The  effect  of  distraction  by  concomitant  activities,  e.  g.,  the 
reciting  of  a  poem,  was  found  by  Vogl  to  reduce  very  mate- 
rially (58.5  per  cent.)  the  number  of  additions  made  bj  the 
continuous  (Kraepelin)  method,  but  to  have  relatively  little 
effect  upon  the  simpler  process  of  adding  pairs  of  digits. 

(12)  Fat'ujue  and  other  factors  of  the  work  curve.  The  use 
of  computation  tests  to  determine  general  mental  efficiency  at 
different  hours  of  the  day,  with  special  reference  to  the  per- 
formance of  school  children  under  classroom  conditions,  rep- 
resents a  special  form  of  experiment  that  oversteps  the  bound- 
aries of  mental  tests  in  their  diagnostic  use.  In  what  follows, 
therefore,  I  have  limited  the  treatment  to  presenting  typical 
results  and  to  pointing  out  certain  important  general  prin- 
ciples that  have  been  established  in  this  field.7 

(a)  General  analysis  of  the  work  curve.  In  other  tests  (espe 
dally  Nos.  10  and  2G)  we  have  had  occasion  to  refer  to  the 
fact  that  attempts  to  isolate  fatigue  from  oilier  influences 
affecting  a  curve  of  work  are  rendered  difficult  because  of  the 
presence  of  other  complicating  factors.  Of  these,  practise  is 
perhaps  the  most  obvious  and  influential.  Investigators  have 
added,  however,  numerous  other  factors,  such  as  recuperation, 
adaptation,  momentum,  swing,  or  fitness  for  work,  warming-up, 
and  spurts  of  various  kinds.  Extended  accounts  of  these  fac- 
tors will  be  found  in  Meumann  (33,  II,  8ff.  and  elsewhere), 
Schulze  (10,  320ff.),  and  particularly  in  the  writings  of  Kraepe- 
lin (26,  27)  and  his  students.  However  patent  and  plausible 
these  factors  may  appear  from  observation  of  our  daily  activi- 
ties, it  seems  probable  that  they  have  sometimes  been  invoked 
in  explanation  of  work  curves  when  actual  demonstration  of 
their  existence  is  difficult,  if  not  impossible.8  In  work  curves 
obtained  from  school  children  it  is  certain  that  loss  of  interest, 


7For  a  comprehensive  critique  of  the  experimental  literature  upon  work 
and  fatigue  the  reader  is  referred  to  Thorndike  (53).  In  my  translation 
of  Offner  (35)  there  will  also  be  found  a  more  general  discussion  of  the 
whole  topic  of  mental  fatigue. 

8Thorndike  is  especially  severe  in  his  criticism  of  the  numerous  lesser 
factors  exploited  by  the  Kraepeliuian  school. 


110    [476]         ASSOCIATION,   LEARNING  AND    MEMORY 

or  ennui,  and  resultant  carelessness  complicate  the  performance 
seriously,  and  are  often  mistaken  for  the  effects  of  true  fatigue, 
in  the  sense  of  actual  inability  to  work  at  a  sustained  level  of 
efficiency. 

(1))  Individual  differences  in  the  work  curve.  We  have  noted 
the  presence  of  clear-cut  individual  differences  in  the  speed 
and  accuracy  of  computation ;  there  are  also  individual  differ- 
ences in  the  course  of  the  performance.  Thus,  both  Kemsies 
and  Keller  conclude  that  mass  results  should  be  subjected  to 
scrutiny  to  detect  individual  curves  of  performance  if  reliable 
information  is  to  be  secured  concerning  fatigue  and  overpres- 
sure in  the  schools.  The  recent  work  of  Miss  Martyn  (32), 
similarly,  has  shown  that  the  introduction  of  a  rest  pause  may 
be  favorable  to  some  &'s  and  unfavorable  to  others,  and  also 
that  the  effect  of  fatigue  may  be  met  and  masked  in  some  fif's 
by  the  presence  in  them  of  a  strong  permanent  'set'  for  accu- 
rate work.  "We  may  conclude,"  she  says,  "that  fatigue  cannot 
be  invariably  estimated  by  diminution  either  in  speed  or  in 
accuracy  of  work,  since  habit  and  method  of  working  bear  an 
important  relation  to  its  manifestations"  (32,  p.  434).  Again, 
the  results  obtained  by  Miss  Arai  and  confirmed  by  numerous 
investigators  make  it  fairly  certain  that  the  most  competent 
workers  are  the  ones  least  affected  by  fatigue. 

These  individual  differences  in  susceptibility  to  fatigue  have 
tempted  some  investigators  to  sort  £'s  into  certain  groups  or 
My jies'  of  workers.  If  by  'types'  is  implied  that  individuals  can 
be  sorted  into  'water-tight  compartments,'  the  hypothesis  must 
be  regarded  as  of  doubtful  utility.  Illustrations  are  seen  in 
the  work  of  Kemsies,  who  distinguishes  between  persistent 
workers  who  fatigue  slowly  and  profit  much  by  practise  and 
feeble  workers  who  fatigue  quickly  and  do  not  profit  much  by 
practise.  Meumann's  own  investigations  lead  him  (33 :  vol.  2, 
pp.  10-11)  to  posit  three  types  of  workers  (quantitatively  re- 
garded) :  the  first  type  attains  maximal  efficiency  at  the  start 
and  thence  decreases  with  many  fluctuations:  the  second  at- 
tains maximal  efficiency  only  after  an  interval  (of  a  length 
depending  upon  the  kind  of  work)  ;  the  third  attains  maximal 
efficiency  only  after  a  long  period,  perhaps  several  hours,  of 


TEST  35:    COMMUTATION 


[477]    111 


work.  The  first  type,  then,  is  characterized  by  rapid  adaptation 
and  rapid  fatigue,  the  second  by  slower  adaptation  and  Blower 
fatigue,  the  third  by  \er\  >1<»\\  adaptation  and  vn\  greal  re 
sistance  to  fatigue.  The  third  type,  lie  thinks,  is  probably  more 
common  in  adult  males,  the  first  in  women  and  children. 

(c)  The  work  curve  for  continued  computation.  1.  Work 
without  interruption.  Oehrn  found  that  when  adults  added 
continuously  for  2  hours  or  more,  maximal  speed  was  attained 
on  the  average  at  about  28  min.  from  the  start.  Schulze  finds, 
however,  that  with  school  girls  aged  12.5  years,  signs  of  fatigue 
appear  even  in  the  first  5  min.  The  total  number  of  additions 
made  per  minute  by  ::7  ^irls  was  1850,  1871,  18<;:i.  17s.~).  and 
1772  for  the  1st  to  the  5th  minute,  respectively. 

Schulze's  results  with  the  same  pupils  for  long.-r  periods  (50 
min.  without  pause)  show  a  progressive  decrease  both  of  quan- 
tity and  of  quality  of  work  (Table  73).  These  figures,  which 
are  selected  from  the  6th  of  a  series  of  experiments,  are  based 
upon  the  very  easy  process  of  adding  two  1-plaee  digits,  so  that 
practise  1ms  relatively  little  effect,  but  fatigue  diminishes  effi- 
ciency. 

TABLE    73 
Effwicmy  in  Addition:    Five  10-Minute  Periods  (Kchulze) 


PERCENTAGE    OF 

DE- 

PERCENTAGE    OF    DE- 

PERIOD 

OF 

TOTAL   NUMBER    OF 

CREASE  OF  QUANTITY 

CREASE    OF    <;i    \i  111 

TEN  MINUTES 

ADDITIONS 

OVER 

THE    PREVIOUS 

OVER 

THE    PREVIOUS 

PERIOD 

PERIOD 

I. 

17.740 



IT. 

16,726 

5.7 

.09 

III. 

15,855 

5.2 

.03 

IV. 

15,485 

2.3 

.17 

V. 

15,134 

2.3 

.01 

The  effect  of  continuous  work  upon  a  very  difficult  task  de- 
pends upon  the  degree  of  practise  previously  attained,  the 
actual  length  of  the  work  and  the  general  condition  of  8  when 
it  is  begun.  Thus,  Thorndike  (51)  induced  72  college  Btudents 
to  multiply  3-place   numbers  mentally   for  about    two   hours. 


112    [478]  ASSOCIATION,    LEARNING    AM)    MEMORY 

with  the  net  result  that  the  work  improved  somewhat  both  in 
speed  and  accuracy;  nevertheless,  a  rest  of  30  min.  effected  an 
increase  of  about  5  per  cent,  in  speed  and  a  rest  over  night  a 
still  further  increase  in  speed  of  about  7  per  cent.  But  when 
the  same  investigator  had  10  »S"s  mentally  multiply  a  3-place 
by  a  2-place  number  continuously  for  from  3  to  8  hours,  or 
(with  pauses  for  meals)  from  4  to  12  hours,  only  3  g'a  did 
as  well  at  the  end  of  their  work  period  as  when  they  had 
rested;  the  results  showed,  as  might  be  expected,  a  compound 
of  gradually  lessening  practise  and  gradually  increasing  fa- 
tigue. Miss  Aral,  who  mentally  multiplied  4-place  numbers 
for  11  or  12  hours  at  a  stretch  after  practise-effects  had  been 
largely  eliminated,  found  that  the  time  needed  to  work  such 
examples  was  practically  doubled  at  the  end  of  eleven  hours.'1 
2.  Work  with  interruptions.  When  repeated  computation 
tests  are  made  within  an  hour,  the  usual  result  is  a  progressive 
increase  in  the  quantity,  but  a  progressive  decrease  in  the  qual- 
ity of  the  work.  Burgerstein's  figures  (Table  74)  furnish  a 
typical  example  of  the  results  for  four  10  min.  periods  with  5 
min.  rest-intervals  between  periods. 


TABLE    74 

Efficiency  in  Addition  and  Multiplication  within  an  Hour  (Burgerstein) 


PERIOD             |NUM^K  °™"RES  1      NUMBER  OF  ERRORS 

IN    KboU  L.  I  o 

PERCENTAGE   OF 
ERROR 

I.. 

28,267 
32,477 
35,443 
39,450 

851                            3.01 

n 

1292                            3.98 

in 

2011                           5.67 

IV 

2360                           5.98 

Miss  Holmes'  results  are  similar,  though,  on  account  of  com- 
puting errors  of  a  different  plan  ('serial'  errors  counting  but 


•In  a  test  conducted  under  my  direction  and  as  yet  unpublished,  Mr. 
Painter,  after  preliminary  trials  to  remove  most  of  the  effect  of  practise, 
worked  at  difficult  mental  multiplication,  beginning  late  in  the  evening 
after  a  day's  university  work  and  continuing  until  the  task  became  impos- 
sible. The  cessation  of  work  was  not  gradual  (with  ability,  for  example, 
to  multiply  2-place  numbers  when  4-place  were  impossible),  but  appeared 
as  a  sudden  collapse  such  that  mental  work  of  any  sort  was  quite  im- 
possible. 


i  EST  :''.->  :   C0MP1  I  A  I  l<>.\  179]    1 1«"> 

as  one  error),  her  percentage  of  error  averaged  bu1   1  3 
against  Burgerstein'a  3.10 
The  common  interpretation  of  results  like  Bnrgerstein'a  has 

been  that  practise  increases  the  speed  of  the  work,  while  fatigue 
increases  its  inaccuracy.  1  >u t  Ebbinghaus  I  11,  pp.  406f.)  de- 
nies that  practise  could  produce  such  marked  increase  of  Bpeed, 
and  ascribes  both  the  increase  of  speed  and  the  decrease  of 
accuracy  primarily  to  increased  haste  and  carelessness. 

(d)  Effect  of  rest-pauses.  When,  either  from  ennui  or 
fatigue,  efficiency  tends  to  decline,  a  period  of  rest  generally 
exerts  a  favorable  effect.  With  school  children,  as  would  be 
expected,  such  a  pause  is  favorable  even  after  relatively  short 
work,  as  is  illustrated  by  the  data  of  Table  7.",  which  are  de- 
rived by  Burgerstein  from  Schulze.  The  effect  of  rest  upon 
efficiency  in  mental  multiplication  after  some  two  hours'  work 
has  already  been  mentioned  with  reference  to  experiments  with 
college  students.  The  tests  made  by  Friedrich  upon  10-year-old 
pupils  and  by  Kraepelin  upon  adults  (20,  pp.  16-17)  furnish 
similar  evidence  of  the  effect  of  rest-pauses. 

TABLE    75 
Additions  per  Pupil,  With  and  without  a  Rcst-Pausc  (Bitrycrstein-Sehuhc) 

;      FIRST  25   MINUTES 


REST-PAUSE  I  SECOND  25  MINUTES 


First  test 1067  5  min.  1088 

Second  test 1146  None  1042 


(e)  Efficiency  at  different  periods  of  the  day.  Typical  in- 
stances of  the  use  of  computation  as  a  test  for  the  fatigue- 
effects  of  the  regular  school  program  are  afforded  by  the  expe- 
riments of  Friedrich,  of  Laser,  and  of  Ebbinghaus.  This 
method  has  been  adopted  in  part  to  avoid  the  entrance  of  ennui 
ond  carelessness  previously  mentioned. 


'"Miss  Holmes'  analysis  of  the  errors  showed  that  their  Increase  during 
the  hour  was  clue  primarily  to  increased  inaccuracy  in  associative  proc- 
esses, rattier  than  to  increased  frequency  of  'slips  of  the  pen.'  In  general. 
errors  of  transcription  were  about  one-third  as  numerous  as  errors  of 
association. 


114     [480]  ASSOCIATION;    LEARNING    AND    MEMORY 

Laser's  tests,  at  hourly  intervals,  of  226  pupils  (aged  9-13 
years)  in  a  Konigsberg  Burgerschule  are  summarized  in  Table 
70.  Inspection  shows  that,  save  for  the  5th  period,  the  out- 
come is  the  same  as  that  of  the  tests  for  an  hour's  time  by 
Burgerstein,  viz. :  a  progressive  increase  in  speed  and  decrease 
in  accuracy  of  computation. 


TABLE    7G 

Efficiency  in  Computation  icithin  a  School  Session  (Laser) 


TEST  AFTER 
SCHOOL  PERIOD 

TOTAL  NUMBER  OF 
FIGURES  ADDED 

TOTAL  NUMBER  OF 
ERRORS 

PERCENTAGE  OF 
ERROrt 

I 

34,900 
40,661 
43,124 
43,999 
45,890 

1147 

1460 
1713 
1796 
1668 

3.28 

II 

3.59 

III 

3.79 

IV 

4.08 

V 

3.63 

Ebbinghaus,  who  sought  to  determine  the  desirability  or  un- 
desirability  of  a  5-hour  continuous  school  session  in  a  Gym- 
nasium and  higher  girls'  school  at  Breslau,  obtained  results 
identical  with  those  of  Laser  so  far  as  the  qualitative  aspects 
are  qoncerned,  but  differing  somewhat  as  regards  the  quantita- 
tive aspects,  more  particularly  in  that  speed  of  computation 
reached  a  maximum  at  the  close  of  the  2d  school  period,  to  re- 
main thereafter  almost  constant  or  to  fall  off  slightly  toward 
the  close  of  the  session.  Friedrich's  results  lead  hiin  to  advise 
lighter  work  in  the  afternoon  session.  Bellei  found  that  boys 
and  girls  aged  12  solved  problems  in  division  more  slowly  and 
less  accurately  in  the  afternoon  than  in  the  morning.  Marsh 
tested  but  a  few  individuals,  so  that  it  is  probably  unsafe  to 
make  inductions  from  his  data,  which  seemed  to  indicate  a 
greater  efficiency  in  adding  at  noon  than  later  in  the  day,  and 
in  multiplication  at  between  1.30  and  3  p.  m.  than  at  6  or  at 
10.30  p.  m.  Miss  Martin  had  6  fif's  add  for  15  min.  at  10,  12  and 
4  o'clock,  with  the  result  that  slightly  more  sums  were  com- 
pleted at  12  and  somewhat  fewer  at  4  than  at  10;  the  differ- 
ences are,  however,  inside  the  probable  error.  The  work  of  the 
first  5  min.  was  relatively  poorer  in  the  afternoon,  due,  she 


TEST  35:    COMPUTATION  [481 J    115 

thinks,  to  a  later  entrance  of  Anregung  at  that  time.  The  most 
authoritative  laboratory  study  of  efficiency  in  calculation  a1 
differenl  periods  of  the  day,  however,  is  that  of  Bollingworth 
(20a),  who  had  opportunity  during  his  experiments  upon  the 
effects  of  caffein  to  watch  the  daily  curves  of  Sf's  whose  work 
was  done  under  exceptionally  good  conditions  as  regards  elimi- 
nation of  practise  error.  In  the  use  of  the  constant-increment 
tesl  (adding  17  to  50  2-place  aumbers)  a1  8,  L0,  L2,  3  and  5.30 
o'clock  there  appeared  progressive  fatigue  amounting  to  about 
a  '1  per  cent,  lengthening  of  the  time  at  each  trial,  with  a  total 
lengthening  of  7.50  per  cent,  in  the  case  of  5  women  and  10.5 
per  rent,  in  the  case  of  5  men.  In  further  use  of  the  same  tesl 
in  a  more  intensive  experiment  (15  trials  between  10.30  A.  .M. 
and  10.30  P.  M.)  there  appeared,  again,  a  lengthening  of  ahum 
Hi  per  (cni.  toward  the  end  of  the  day. 

Heck  tested  115:1  New  York  school  children  (18)  and  57:: 
Lynchburg,  Va.,  children  (17)  with  a  modification  of  the  Courtis 
tests  for  the  fundamental  arithmetical  operations.  The  New  York 
tests  lasted  10  niin.,  those  al  Lynchburg  25  min.,  and  they  were 
distributed  over  various  periods  of  the  school  session,  particu- 
larly at  !».  11.1  and  2.30  o'clock.  The  general  result  was  an 
increase  in  quantity  and  a  decrease  in  quality  toward  the  close 
of  the  day;  al  New  York,  for  instance,  quantity  increased  In 
1.57,  l.iil  and  2.36  per  cent,  in  the  I'd.  3d  and  4th  periods,  while 
quality  decreased  by  1.51,  1.41  and  2.1's  per  cent,  in  the  corre- 
sponding periods.  These  differences  are  so  slight  as  to  be  peda 
gogically  negligible,  in  the  opinion  of  Heck.  The  inferior  qual- 
ity of  the  later  periods  is,  he  thinks,  more  likely  a  sign  of 
lessened  interest  than  of  consumption  of  energy  or  any  sort  of 
fatigne-poisoning.  Rather  elaborate  tests  with  computation 
and  other  forms  of  school  work  by  Robinson  in  South  Carolina 
show  in  general  little  evidence  of  actual  loss  of  ability  toward 
the  close  of  the  school  session.11  The  same  conclusion  has  been 
reached  by  Thorndike  (45)  from  schoolroom  tests  al  Cleveland, 
Ohio,  and  Scranton,  Pa.     lie  emphasizes  the  statement   thai 


"Consult  the  original  for  a  discussion  of  the  effects  of  recesses,  lun<  ties, 
gymnastics,  singing,  special  Incitement,  etc.,  upon  performance  In  such 
lests.  The  main  conclusions  are  also  summarized  in  JEdPs,  3:  1912, 
393-595. 


11G    [4.82  J         ASSOCIATION,,    LEARNING    AND    MEMORY 

"incompetence,  mental  fatigue,  does  not  come  in  regular  propor- 
tion to  the  work  done,"  that  feelings  of  fatigue  are  not  meas- 
ures of  mental  inability,  that  disinclination  to  work  docs  not 
signify  inability  to  work.  It  may  be  questioned,  however, 
whether  this  demonstration  that  pupils  can  work  nearly  as  well 
at  the  end  of  school  session  as  at  its  beginning  is  equivalent, 
as  some  writers  have  thought,  to  a  demonstration  that  they 
should  be  expected  to  work  as  well  at  the  later  periods. 

A  special  study  of  fatigue  in  evening  schools  by  Winch  leads 
him  to  the  conclusion  "that  evening  work  is  comparatively 
unprofitable,  and  that  a  short  time  in  class  in  the  evening  is 
sufficient,  plus  the  labors  of  the  day,  to  induce  a  low  condition 
of  mental  energy." 

Notes. — Those  who  have  used  computation  tests  have  not 
sought,  as  a  rule,  to  examine  the  mental  processes  involved  in 
them.  Oehrn,  however,  calls  attention  to  the  fact  that  practise 
in  adding  (by  the  Kraepelin  method)  tends  to  induce  quasi- 
automatic  addition.  This  circumstance,  taken  in  conjunction 
with  the  relatively  small  correlations  between  different  forms 
of  computation  themselves,  and  between  them  and  other  abili- 
ties, including  general  intelligence,  lends  countenance  to  Wells' 
objection  (55)  to  accepting  the  computation  test,  without  fur- 
ther qualification,  as  a  measure  of  general  mental  efficiency. 

Wyatt's  'missing  digit'  test  forms  an  interesting  modification 
of  the  computation  test.  In  it  examples  in  addition,  subtrac- 
tion, multiplication  and  division  are  given  in  which  one  or 
more  figures,  both  in  the  answer  and  in  the  body  of  the  ex- 
ample, are  replaced  by  dots:  the  task  is  to  restore  the  figures 
correctly.     The  following  will  serve  to  illustrate  his  material : 

2.94 

.867 
781. 


.42.G 


PEST  35:  COMPUTATION  [483]    117 

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(29)  H.  Laser,  Ueber  geistige  Ermiidung  beim  Schulunterrichto. 
ZScGd,  7 :  1894,  2-22. 

(30)  H.  D.  Marsh,  The  diurnal  course  of  efficiency  (Columbia  Univ. 
thesis),  N.  Y.,  1906.    Pp.  99. 

(31)  Gladys  VY.  Martin,  The  evidence  of  mental  fatigue  during  school 
hours.    JEPd,  1  :    1911,  39-45,  137-147. 

(32)  Gladys  W.  Martyn,  A  study  of  mental  fatigue.  BrJPs,  5:  1913, 
427-446. 

(33)  E.  Meumann,  Yorlesungen  zur  Einfiihrung  in  die  exp.  Piida- 
gogik,  1st  ed.,  2  vols.,  Leipzig,  1907.    Pp.  555  and  467. 

(34)  A.  Oehrn.  Exp.  Studien  zur  Individualpsychologie.  PsArb,  1: 
1896,  92-151. 

(35)  M.  Offner,  Mental  fatigue.  (Eng.  trans.)  EdPsMon.  Balti- 
more, 1911.     Pp.  133. 

(36)  Louise  PL  Ordahl,  Consciousness  in  relation  to  learning.  AmJPs, 
22:    1911,  158-213.  especially  194-202. 

(37)  J.  Iieis,  Ueber  einfache  psychologische  Yersuche  an  Gesunden  u. 
Geisteskranken.     PsArb,  2  :    1899,  587-694. 

(3S)  L.  A.  Robinson,  Mental  fatigue  and  school  efficiency.  Bull.  Win- 
throp  Normal  and  Industrial  College  of  South  Carolina,  5 :    1911.    Pp.  56. 

(39)  R.  Schulze,  500,000  Rechenaufgaben.  Eine  exp.  Untersuchung. 
PraJctische  Schulmann,  44:   1895,  340. 

(40)  R.  Schulze,  Experimental  psychology  and  pedagogy.  (Eng. 
trans.)     New  York,  1912.     Pp.  364. 

(41)  B.  R.  Simpson,  Correlations  of  mental  abilities.  ColumbiaCouEd, 
No.  53.     New  York,  1912.     Pp.  122. 

(42)  W.  Specht,  Ueber  klinische  Ermiidungsmessungen.  ArGesPs,  3: 
1904,   245-339. 

(43)  D.  Starch,  Transfer  of  training  in  arithmetical  operations. 
JEdPs,  2  :    1911.  306-310. 

(44)  Teljatnik,  article  in  Russian.  See  for  details,  Burgerstein  u. 
Netolitzky,  4;  especially  pp.  462-5. 

(45)  E.  L.  Thorndike,  Mental  fatigue.    PsR,  7:   1900,  466-482,  547-579. 

(46)  E.  L.  Thorndike,  Educational  psychology,  2d  ed.,  N.  Y.,  1910. 
Pp.  248. 

(47)  E.  L.  Thorndike.  Measurements  of  twins.  Archives  of  Phil., 
Psyeh.  etc.,  No.  1,  Sept.,  1905.     Pp.  64. 

(48)  E.  L.  Thorndike.  The  effect  of  prnctise  in  the  case  of  a  purely 
intellectunl  function.    AmJPs,  19  :    1908.374-384. 

(49)  E.  L.  Thorndike,  Practise  in  the  case  of  addition.  AmJPs,  21: 
1910,  483-486. 

(50)  E.  L.  Thorndike.  Mental  fatigue.    JEdPs,  2:    1911,  61-80. 


I  is'l     36:     MIRROR-DRAW  I  N«;  [485]     H9 

(51)  E.  L.  Thorndlke,  The  effecl  of  continuous  exercise  and  ol 
upon  difficult  mental  multiplication.    JEdPs,  5:     1914,  597 

(52)  ]•:.  L.  Thorndlke,  Measurements  of  ability  to  solve  arithmetical 
problems.    Pdtie,  21 :  1914,  495-503. 

(53)  k.  l.  Thorndlke,  Educational  Psychology,  \'"i.  [II.  (Mental 
work  and  fatigue,  etc.)    New  York,  1914.    Pp.  108,  especially  Chs.  2  and  3. 

(54)  R.  Vogt,  [Jeber  Ablenkbarkeil  und  GewShnungsffihlgkelt  PsArb, 
:;:   1901,  62-201,  especially  80-118,  131-135. 

(55)  f.  i..  Wells,  Technical  aspects  of  experimental  psycho-pathology. 
An,. /Ins,  c,l  :    1908,    177-512. 

(.")(.)  I".  I..  Wells,  The  relation  of  practise  to  Individual  differences. 
AmJPs,  23:    1912,  75  88. 

(57)  V.  L.  Wells,  Standard  tests  of  arithmetical  associations.  •//'/'. 
■I :  1907,  510-512. 

1 58  I  w.  II.  Winch,  Some  measurements  of  mental  fatigue  in  adoles- 
eent  pupils  in  evening  school.    JEdPs,  I:    1910,  13-23,83-100. 

(59)  W.  li.  Winch,  Accuracy  in  school  children.  Does  Improvement 
in  numerical  accuracy  'transfer?'    JEdPs,  1  :    1910,  557-589. 

(00)  W.  II.  Winch.  Further  work  on  numerical  accuracy  in  school 
children.  Does  Improvement  In  numerical  accuracy  transfer?  JEdPs.  2: 
1911,  262-271. 

(61)  K.  s.  Woodwortb  and  F.  L.  Wells.  Association  icsts.  PsMon, 
No.  57,  1911.     Pp.  85,  especially  44-48. 

(02)  S.  Wyatt,  The  quantitative  investigation  of  bigher  mental  proc- 
esses.    BrJPs,  6:    1913,  KiO-133. 

TEST  36 

Mirror-drawing. — The  preceding  tests  of  association  deal 
with  fif's  facility  in  producing  unrestricted  series,  or  in  repro- 
ducing restricted  series  that  have  already  been  learned.  The 
present  test  compels  8  to  form  a  new  series  of  associations  that 
are  opposed  to  associations  stereotyped  by  several  years  of 
daily  experience. 

More  particularly,  in  tracing  an  ordinary  drawing  the  move- 
ments of  the  hand  are  guided  by  the  visual  perception  of  the 
drawing,  plus  kinesthetic  sensations  set  up  by  the  movement 
of  the  pencil.  If  the  drawing  is  seen  not  directly,  hut  in  a  mir- 
ror, the  natural  relations  are  reversed  in  certain  respects,  so 
thai  a  new  secies  of  associative  connections  must  he  established 
between  eye  and  hand.  The  rapidity  and  ease  with  which  these 
new  connections  are  established  may  he  taken  as  an  index  of 
learning-capacity. 

Learning  is  often  said  to  take  place  either  by  practise  (trial 
and  error),  by  imitation,  or  by  some  form  of  ideational  control 
(instruction,  reasoning,  etc.).  In  the  mirror-drawing  test,  the 
conditions  preclude  the  use  of  imitation,  and  there  is  but  rela- 


120    [486]         ASSOCIATION,   LEARNING  AND    MEMORY 

tively  little  opportunity  to  employ  ideational  control ;  whatever 
improvement  appears  is  due  primarily  to  a  process  of  trial  and 
error. 

The  interesting  phenomena  of  mirror-writing  are  mentioned 
in  psychological  literature  as  early  as  the  90's,  if  not  before,  but 
the  first  use  of  mirror-drawing  as  a  psychological  experiment 
appears  to  be  found  in  Henri's  article  on  the  muscular  sense 
(9)  and  in  his  monograph  on  tactual  space  perception  of  the 
same  year,  1898.  W.  F.  Dearborn  (7),  independently,  expe- 
rimented with  mirror-drawing  in  1905,  though  his  work  was 
not  reported  until  after  other  writers,  likewise  independently, 
had  hit  upon  a  similar  idea.  In  addition  to  Dearborn,  Judd 
(11,  p.  99)  Starch  (16)  and  Hill  (10)  have  called  attention  to 
the  usefulness  of  mirror-drawing  as  a  demonstration  experiment 
to  illustrate  the  acquisition  of  motor  habits,  the  trial  and 
error  method  of  learning,  the  cross-transfer  of  practise-effects, 
and  the  like.  Burt,  Yoakum  and  Calfee,  Miss  Weidensall  and 
others  have  used  mirror-drawing  to  test  quickness  of  learning,1 
and  its  correlation  with  sex,  intelligence  and  other  factors. 

Apparatus. — Mirror.  Cardboard  screen  about  17x24  cm. 
Suitable  supports  for  holding  the  cardboard.  Thumb  tacks. 
Stop-watch.  Two  kinds  of  diagrams,  printed  in  red  ink,  for 
tracing:  (a)  a  6-poiuted  star,  (b)  a  set  of  6  patterns,  each 
based  upon  a  group  of  12  points  arranged  at  equidistant  in- 
tervals in  a  circle  about  its  central  point,  with  guiding  lines 
joining  the  13  points  in  irregular  fashion.  [Mechanical  counter. 
A  strong  prism  (about  20  D.).] 

The  six  patterns  resemble  tbose  used  by  Miss  Calfee  and  Yoakum,  but 
differ  from  them  in  eliminating  the  numbering  of  the  points.  S  is  directed 
from  one  point  to  the  next  by  means  of  arrows  and  broken  red  lines,  and 
does  not  have,  therefore,  to  spend  a  portion  of  his  time  in  hunting  for  the 
numbering  to  discern  the  order  in  which  the  points  are  connected.  These 
patterns  are  somewhat  more  difficult  than  the  star  in  so  far  as  the  direc- 
tion of  the  movement  of  the  hand  is  not  the  same  in  the  various  trials — 
a  matter  of  advantage,  however,  since  the  series  of  trials  does  not  develop 
a  specific  memory  for  a  given  set  of  hand  movements.  On  the  other  hand, 
these  patterns  are  less  difficult  than  the  star  in  so  far  as  S  is  not  required 
to  follow  the  directing  lines  exactly.  The  patterns  also  more  nearly  re- 
semble than  does  the  star  test  the  mirror  test  used  by  Burt,  in  which  8 


JFor  a  discussion  of  prolonged  adaptation  to  mirror-vision,  see  Strat- 
ton  (18). 


TEST  36:    MIRROR-DBA  WING  [*87]     1-1 

was  required  to  punch  with  a  stylus  through  8  or  more  orifices  arranged 
in  a  tir.lc  about  an  orifice  at  the  center.  They  are  superior  to  Bart's 
material  in  several  respects. 

Whether  the  stars  or  the  patterns  are  used  will  depend  upon  circum- 
stances. Either  form  of  material  may  be  used  as  supplementary  to  the 
other;  thus,  the  star  test  may  be  need  before  and  after  drill  work  with 
the  G  patterns  for  an  experiment  to  test  the  effect  of  practise. 

Preliminaries. — Pin  the  diagram  out  flat  upon  a  table,  di- 
rectly in  front  of  S.  If  the  patterns  are  ased,  they  should  be 
taken  in  the  order  of  their  numbering.  If  the  star  is  used,  it 
should  be  placed  with  the  cross  line  that  indicates  the  stalling 
point  at  the  back  (away  from  8)  and  with  the  card  square  with 
the  edge  of  the  table.  (This  brings  the  star  slightly  cou1  of 
true,'  as  is  intended.)  Set  up  the  mirror  inclined  slightly 
(about  5  deg.)  from  the  vertical,  just  beyond  the  din-ram.  Ar- 
range the  screen  (see  Fig.  64)  so  that  it  will  cut  off  S'a  direel 
view  of  the  diagram,  but  will  allow  him  to  see  it  clearly  in  the 
mirror,  and  will  not  interfere  with  his  hand  in  drawing. 

Method. —  (a)  Willi  the  patterns.  Place  the  point  of  a  lead 
pencil  at  the  center  of  the  diagram.  Assist  &  to  grasp  the  pen- 
cil (permitting  him  to  look  only  in  the  mirror) .  Instruct  him  : 
"When  I  say  'now,'  move  your  pencil  along  the  paper  in  the 
direction  indicated  by  the  red  arrow  till  you  reach  the  point 
at  the  end  of  the  broken  line;  then  follow  the  red  line  from 
that  point  to  the  next  one,  and  so  on  till  you  have  touched  all 
12  of  the  points  on  the  paper  and  come  to  the  end  of  the  red 
dashes.  You  doirt  have  to  keep  on  the  lines;  they  are  put  there 
simply  to  show  you  where  to  look  for  the  points,  but  you  must 
keep  your  pencil  on  the  paper,  and  you  must  bring  your  pencil 
to  each  point  before  you  go  on  to  the  next  one.  Work  as  rap- 
idly as  you  can.  Don't  stop  to  figure  out  what  you  ought  to  do, 
but  keep  your  pencil  moving  all  the  time."  Start  the  watch 
at  the  signal,  and  record  the  time  for  the  entire  diagram.  Pin 
down  the  seeond  pattern  and  continue  until  all  six  patterns 
have  been  traced. 

(&)  With  the  star.  Place  the  point  of  a  lead  pencil  upon  the 
crossdine  of  the  star,  and  assist  S  to  grasp  the  pencil  (permit- 
ting him  to  look  only  in  the  mirror).  Instruct  »$':  '"Trace  the 
outline  of  the  star,  starting  in  this  direction  [indicating,  by 
pointing,  the  lip  of  the  star  at   the  righl   of  the  cross-line]. 


122    [488]         ASSOCIATION,    LEARNING   AND    MEMORY 


FIG.    64.      THE    MIRROR-DRAWING   TEST. 


Work  as  rapidly  as  you  can,  but  try  to  keep  on  lite  line.  Don't 
stop  to  figure  out  what  you  ought  to  do,  hut  keep  your  pencil 
going  in  some  direction,  and  keep  its  point  on  the  paper  all 
the  time."  Start  the  watch,  and  record  the  time  for  the  entire 
drawing. 

E  may  also  note  the  time  for  each  sixth  of  the  pattern.  But 
it  is,  perhaps,  more  desirable  to  supplement  the  total  time  by 
a  record  of  the  total  number  of  corrective  movements  made  by 
S.  Since  these  movements  are  often  rapid,  and  of  short  extent, 
it  is  necessary  to  use  a  mechanical  or  other  form  of  counter  to 
obtain  the  record.  Press  the  counter  ovqvy  time  8  moves  to- 
ward the  line.2 

For  a  standard  test,  make  6  trials  with  the  right  hand,  using 
a  fresh  star  for  each  trial. 

Variations  of  Method. — Make  tests  with  the  star  before  and 
after  a  drill  series  with  the  patterns,  as  suggested  above,  or 


'Every  'error,'  or  movement  away  from  the  line  must,  of  course,  be  com- 
pensated for  by  a  return  movement.  The  idea  is  to  register  the  number 
of  these  errors,  or  corrective  movements.  Changes  of  direction  necossi- 
t:itori  by  the  pattern  ifspir  are,  obviously,  1"  be  neglected. 


TEST   36  :    MIRROB-DRAWING 


[489]    123 


with  either  form  of  material  make  a  first  trial  with  the  left 
hand;  follow  with  a  series  of  5  to  50  trials  with  the  right  hand,1 
then  return  to  the  left  hand  for  a  final  test.  Note  Imw  much 
practise  effed  lias  been  'transferred'  from  the  one  hand  to  the 
other.  Plot  a  graph  to  show  the  effect  of  practise,  both  upon 
the  time  and  apon  the  corrective  movements. 

Treatment  of  Data. —  In  the  standard  form  of  test  E  has 
available  (>  records.  Several  possibilities  appear:  S's  may  be 
compared  with  respect  to  (1)  their  1st  trial.  (2)  their  6th  trial, 
(3)  all  6  trials  taken  collectively  (sum  or  average),  or  with  re- 
spect to  their  rate  of  improvement,  by  computing  the  per  cent, 
of  gain  either  (h  in  the  <ith.  compared  with  the  1st  trial,  or 
(.".i  in  the  average  of  the  last  three,  compared  with  the  average 
of  the  first  three  trials.  The  third  method  was  found  by  Burl 
to  yield  the  best  correlation  with  intelligence.  On  the  other 
hand,  the  I'd  method  would  seem  to  have  some  merit,  since 
Vnaknm  and  Calfee  conclude'  that  ''the  time  consumed  in  the 
tirst  trial  is  an  individual  variation ;  that  of  the  last  [nth]  more 
nearly  represents  the  individual's  place  in  the  group."  Until 
we  have  more  investigations  on  this  point  it  would  be  better  for 
/:  to  try  more  than  one  method  of  ranking  fif's  and  to  select  the 
one  which  gave  the  most  favorable  results. 

Kksults. —  (1)  The  best  norms  for  the  patterns  are  supplied 
by  the  results  of  Yoakum  and  Calfee,  embodied  in  Table  78; 
results  from  a  more  limited  number  of  college  students  with  the 
star  test  are  shown  in  Table  77,  and  for  other  groups  in  Tables 
79  and  80. 


TABLE    77 

Effect  of  Practise  on  Speed  in  Mirror-Drawing. 

(Whipple) 


College  students 


1st 

1st 

2d 

3d 

lTII 

5th 

2D 

LEFT 

RIGHT 

RIGHT 

RIGHT 

RIGHT 

RIGHT 

LEFT 

Men 

11 

! 
169 

127 

108 

96 

80 

67 

88 

Women  __ 

23 

149 

127 

87 

76 

67 

67 

74 

sIf  desired,  the  G  patterns  may  be  used,  turned  to  bring  the  other  edges 
at  the  baric,  in  order  to  provide  drill  without  direct  repetition  of  the  same 
diagram. 


124    [490]         ASSOCIATION,    LEARNING    AND    MEMORY 

(2)  Individual  differences  in  performance  are  striking;  thus, 
in  the  star  test  the  time  consumed  in  making  the  first  tracing 
ranged,  in  the  author's  tests  of  34  students,  from  about  50  sec. 
to  more  than  8  min.    In  the  larger  group  of  students  examined 


TABLE    78 
Times,  in  Sec,  for  Mirror-Drawing  (Yoakum  and  Calfcc) 


GROUP 

TRIAL 

i 

ii 

in 

IV 

V 

VI 

AVER. 

I Median 

243.0 

121.0 

93.0 

82.0 

68.0 

50.0 

110.33 

M.V. 

94.9 

45.5 

28.1 

34.7 

24.7 

17.1 

36.57 

Slowest 

517.0 

245.0 

205.0 

180.0 

158.0 

113.0 

210.00 

Fastest 

69.0 

51.0 

41.0 

43.0 

40.0 

32.0 

53.66 

ir____ 

Median 

92.0 

65.0 

48.0 

41.0 

35.0 

28.0 

54.70 

M.V. 

.   64.1 

33.9 

26.6 

19.3 

21.9 

14.2 

27.40 

Slowest 

700.5 

337.5 

303.5 

153.5 

201.8 

171.0 

242.37 

Fastest 

31.5 

23.5 

19.3 

18.3 

17.8 

17.0 

23.95 

iii____ 

Median 

1G7.5 

105.0 

80.0 

68.0 

56.0 

48.0 

97.83 

M.V. 

104.2 

39.3 

30.3 

19.7 

19.9 

13.5 

33.38 

Slowest 

752.0 

277.0 

270.0 

175.0 

121.0 

105.0 

193.33 

Fastest 

72.0 

49.0 

40.0 

34.0 

33.0 

23.0 

46.87 

Group  I  comprised  30  elementary  school  boys.  Group  II,  52  women, 
and  Group  III,  51  men  in  the  freshman  class  of  the  University  of  Texas. 
The  averages  for  each  group  in  each  trial  are  not  here  reproduced. 

at  Texas  differences  range  from  31.5  to  752  sec,  while  the  fastest 
college  girl  tested  by  Miss  Weidensall  had  a  record  of  18  sec, 
as  compared  with  2072  sec  for  the  slowest  reformatory  woman 
(Table  79).  These  differences,  as  inspection  of  the  tables  will 
show,  are  greatly  reduced  after  a  little  practise. 

(3)  Dependence  on  sex.  That  girls  decidedly  surpass  boys 
and  that  women  decidedly  surpass  men  is  shown  in  all  the  pub- 
lished results  in  mirror-drawing,  with  the  exception  of  two 
groups  reported  by  Burt  and  Moore,  and  in  them  certain  diver- 
gencies in  method  and  in  other  test  conditions  offer  a  sufficient 
explanation  of  the  apparent  exception.  Miss  Calfee's  averages 
for  six  trials  give  for  the  freshmen  women  64.4  sec,  P.E.  22.3, 
for  the  freshmen  men  101  sec,  P.E.  28.5.  She  finds  that  only 
0  per  cent,  of  the  men  reach  the  women's  median,  while  90.4 


ii. m  :;»; :  mirror-drawing  r.u]   il'o 

per  cent,  of  the  women  reach  the  men's  median.  It  is  nut  only 
possible,  but  probable,  that  this  Bex-difference  is  in  some  part 
due  to  greater  familiarity  of  women  with  the  use  of  the  mirror. 
Bnrt  believes  that  there  is  also  an  innate  sex  difference  ai  work. 

(4)  Dependence  on  practise.  i"i  General  practise-effects. 
The  tables  given  above  show  that  even  a  single  trial  produces 
a  decided  reduction  in  time:  the  median  time  for  elementary 
school  boys,  for  example,  is  cut  in  halves  in  the  pattern  test. 
while  that  for  men  and  women  is  reduced  one-third  by  the 
first  trial.  (See  Pig.  65.)  The  long  practise  experiment  con- 
ducted by  Starch  with  the  star  test  shows  (Fig.  66)  that  the 
[■eduction  is  rapid  at  first,  then  slower,  and  that  maximal 
-I  ecd  is  not  attained  tor  a  long  time,  apparently  not  until  some 
[Ml  trials  (Starch's  curve  represents  a  series  of  l<i<>  trials,  one 
per  day i . 

i  h  i  Individual  differences  in  practise-effects.  Practise  curves 
compounded  of  the  performances  of  a  group  of  S>'s  show    a 

a oth  drop  (see  Pig.  65),  but  the  curves  of  individual  S's  are 

not  necessarily  of  this  form:  on  the  contrary,  it  is  possible,  as 
Yoakum  and  Calfee  have  shown  (22,  p.  290),  to  separate  fif's 
into  groups  that  show  the  2d  trial  slower  than  the  1st,  or  the 
3d  slower  than  the  2d,  etc.  These  investigators  summarize  these 
facts  by  saying:  ••Some  S's  gain  control  of  the  situation  by  a 
fairly  regular  procedure;  others  temporarily  lose  control  at 
some  point  in  the  series.  The  majority  of  the  latter  lose  control 
at  the  fourth  or  fifth  trial  in  a  series  of  six  tests.''  It  follows 
that  the  rank-order  of  $?8  in  any  one  trial  does  uot  correlate 
perfectly  with  their  rank-order  in  any  other  trial;  actual  cone 
lalions  computed  by  Yoaknm  and  Calfee  between  the  first  and 
subsequent  trials  ate  0.79,  0.7b.  0.74,  0.64  ami  0.59  for  the  2d, 
3d,  4th,  nth  and  6th  trial,  respectively.  The  correlation  be- 
tween  the  first  trial  and  Ihe  average  of  all  6  trials  is  given  by 
them  as  0.93. 

id  Gross-education.  A  considerable  amount  of  practise 
gained  with  the  one  hand  is  transferred  to  the  other  (unprac- 
tised) hand.  Thus,  Starch's  [00-day  practise  with  the  right 
hand  effected  an  improvement  in  it  of  92  per  cent,  in  accuracy 
and  of  84  per  cent,  in  speed.    A  single  [eft-hand  record,  made 


12G    [492J        ASSOCIATION,   LEARNING  and   memory 


E   I 

206 

T 

G  « 

no 

1 

4C 

1 

N 

FIG.   G5.      THE   EFFECT    OF   PRACTISE   DURING    SIX    TRIALS    UPON    THE   AVERAGE 

speed  of  mirror-drawing.     (From  Yoakum  and  Calfee) 

The  abscissas  represent  the  six  trials,  running  from  left  to  right.  The 
ordinates  represent  time  in  sec.  'E'  is  the  curve  for  the  30  elementary 
school  boys.  'B'  for  the  51  freshmen  men,  'G'  for  the  52  freshmen  women, 
'T'  for  the  103  freshmen  collectively. 


CEOT    '■'><>.    MIBBOB-DBAWING 


[403  J    1-7 


at  the  expiration  of  this  period,  showed,  in  comparison  with  a 
single  left-hand  record  made  before  practise  began,  an  improve 
ment  of  81  per  cent,  in  accuracy  and  of  85  per  cent,  in  speed. 
There  is,  however,  nothing  surprising  in  this  so-called  'cross 


ml.    66.       I  III'    EFFECT    OF    LONG    PRACTISE    Il'i>\     U  I  EtBI  IB-DB  \w  I  NG. 

(From  Starch) 

education,'  since  the  tracing  of  the  star  in  the  mirror  depends 
primarily  upon  co-ordinations  established  in  the  central  ner- 
vous system:  in  other  words,  the  transfer  is  only  an  outwardly 

apparent  transfer;  in  reality,  the  same  factors  are  at  work  in 
the  control  of  either  hand. 

(d)  Persistence  of  practise.  The  effect  of  even  a  short  period 
of  practise  in  mirror-drawing  is  very  persistent.  Thus,  Burl 
administered  »!  tests  in  succession,  during  which  the  average 
speed  fell  from  103  to  39.5  sec.  Twelve  weeks  later,  two  tests 
were  given  in  succession;  the  average  speed  developed  was  34.5 
sec.  in  the  first,  and  L'7.1  Bee.  in  the  second:  in  other  words,  the 
7th  test  surpassed  the  6th,  made  12  weeks  previously — a  condi- 
tion found  in  the  records  of  L6  oul  of  26  boys.  The  extent  to 
which  this  persistence  of  practise-effect  was  shared  by  Burt's 


A 


L28    [494  J         ASSOCIATION,    LEARNING    AND    MEMuKY 

&'s  is  further  indicated  by  the  correlation  of  0.52  between  their 
standing  before,  and  their  standing  after  the  12-week  interval. 
Hill's  work  (10b)  shows  that  the  skill  developed  by  one  trial 
a  day,  continued  for  50  days,  is  so  persistent  that  after  an  in- 
terruption of  three  years  the  first  trial  in  relearning  is  as  fast 
as  the  32d  and  more  accurate  than  the  50th  trial  of  the  original 
series,  and  that  in  four  retrials  a  speed  and  accuracy  has  been 
regained  that  is  equal  to  the  final  records  of  the  original  series. 
Mirror-drawing  seems,  therefore,  to  resemble  neuromuscular 
habits,  like  skating,  typewriting,  etc.,  in  the  manner  in  which 
skill  once  developed  is  retained  with  little  loss  over  long  periods, 
rather  than  the  associative  connections  of  ideational  life  with 
their  relatively  lesser  persistence. 

(5)  Dependence  on  intelligence.  Burt  reports  a  correlation 
between  speed  and  estimated  intelligence  of  0.67,  P.E.  .07,  for 
elementary  school  boys,  and  of  0.54,  P.E.  .14,  for  preparatory 
school  boys.  In  another  group  of  English  school  children  a 
correlation  of  0.60  was  found,  according  to  Burt  and  Moore. 
Miss  Calfee,  however,  found  no  such  relations  in  her  group  of 
elementary  school  children  chosen  to  duplicate  Burt's  condi- 
tions: here  the  correlation  with  school  grades  was  virtually 
zero  (0.07)  ;  similarly,  in  the  college  students  the  correlation 
with  grades  was  — .07  in  the  case  of  the  men  and  0.19  in  the 
case  of  the  women.  The  author  wras  able  to  discern  no  constant 
differences  between  the  work  of  five  dull  and  five  bright  boys. 

(6)  Delinquents.  Comparative  study  of  the  star-test  (5  suc- 
cessive trials)  with  college  girls,  maids  in  college  dormitories 
and  girls  at  Bedford  Hills,  N.  Y.,  Reformatory,  conducted  by 
Miss  Weidensall,  reveals  a  number  of  interesting  results.  From 
advance  sheets  of  her  manuscript,  for  which  I  am  indebted  to 
Dr.  Weidensall,  I  have  selected  data  referring  primarily  to  the 
time  records  only4  (Tables  79  and  80) .  The  first  of  these  tables 
shows  that,  both  in  the  first  and  in  the  last  trial,  and  whether 


'Dr.  Weidensall  expects  to  publish  also  data  for  the  number  of  errors 
(corrective  movements)  and  for  the  degree  of  'precision'  with  which  the 
line  is  followed.  Precision  has  been  measured  by  ascertaining  the  total 
number  of  cm.  in  the  contour  of  the  star  in  which,  for  distances  of  3  or 
more  consecutive  mm.,  the  tracing  remained  within  2  mm.  either  way  from 
the  red  line. 


TEST   ;5'»  :    MIBKOU-DBAWINU 


|  195]    r-"» 


maximal,  minimal,  median,  average  or  upper  or  lower  quartile 

is  considered,  the  three  groups  arc  invariably  arranged  in  the 
same  order— students  best,  Bedford  women  last  and  the  maids 
intermediate.     The  second  of  these  tables  shows   that   there 


TABLE    70 

Times,  in  Bee.,  Used  in  the  Star  Test  hy  36  College  Girls,  16  College  Maids 
and  69  Bedford  Reformatory  Women    (Weidensall) 


COLLEGE  GIRLS                          COLLEGE  MAIDS 

REFORMATORY   WOMEN 

1st  Star 

6th  Star          1st  Star 

5th  Star 

1st  Star 

5th  Star 

Fastest  J      18. 
Upper  Q.       41. 
Median  .1      66. 
Average  1      82.6 
Lower  Q.      110. 
SlowestJ     252. 

7.                   36. 

17.5            54. 
28.7           127.5 
31.3           133.6 
39.             161. 
76.            409. 

21. 
29.5 

44.5 
48.6 
69. 
85. 

59.                   36. 

203.6            80. 
420.             117.2 
473.1           124. 
627.             148. 
2072.            436* 

♦With  two  failures  in  addition. 

exists  a  good  correspondence  between  both  the  time  and  errors 
for  the  star  test  and  the  classification  made  by  the  institution 
into  three  groups  depending  on  outlook  for  reformation:  the 
differences  are  more  striking  in  the  first  than  in  1he  fifth 
tracing. 

TABLE    SO 

Scores  in  the  Star  Test  for  Three  Groups  of  Bedford  Reformatory  Worm  n 

(Weidensall) 


FIRST  STAR                                FIFTH   STAR 

Time 

Errors             T<me 

Errors 

Most  capable  and  promising- 
Women  with  illegitimate  chil- 
dren under  2  yrs.  of  age 

Backward  and  mentally  feeble. 
Unpromising 

320.9          117.7 
562.9          211.3 
610.5          264.4 

105.4 
123.1 
127.2 

36.0 
45.6 
55.1 

In  addition  to  these  quantitative  results,  the  star  test  has 
proved  to  possess  a  value  in  a  perhaps  unexpected  direction, 


130    [496J         ASSOCIATION,    LEARNING   AND    MEMORY 

viz.:  as  a  device  for  sorting  out  S's  of  the  unstable  and  less 
tractable  type. 

On  this  point  Dr.  Weidensall  writes :  "This  test  isolates  .better  than 
any  we  have  tried  at  Bedford  those  who  are  incapable  of  sustained  effort 
under  difficulties.  It  isolated,  of  course,  the  low-grade  feeble-minded,  for, 
no  matter  how  hard  they  try,  they  do  not  succeed  in  tracing  a  precise 
star.  The  epileptics  have  a  characteristically  bad  time  and  their  stars 
are  all  "knotted  up'  with  'blind  spots'  where  they  weie  caught  and  held 
indefinitely.  Chiefly,  however,  is  the  test  of  interest  in  the  case  of  those 
who  are  bright  enough  to  trace  the  star  well,  but  too  unstable  to  do  so. 
These  are  invariably  the  girls  who  are  difficult  to  manage  in  the  institu- 
tion. The  tracing  goes  well  enough  until  suddenly  the  pencil  at  some  hard 
point  starts  off  in  the  wrong  direction.  The  subject  then  tugs  and  pulls, 
grows  more  and  more  irritated,  disturbed  and  excited,  makes  big  black 
circles  and  finally  throws  down  the  pencil  and  gives  up.  When  calmed, 
praised  and  urged  to  try  again,  she  will  continue  and  usually  in  the  end 
draw  a  fairly  good  fifth  star.  This  behavior  in  tracing  the  star  is  typical 
of  their  behavior  in  the  institution  when  the  pressure  of  discipline  or  re- 
sponsibility becomes  the  least  bit  too  exacting." 

(7)  Relation  of  speed  and  accuracy.  The  curves  reproduced 
from  Starch  show  that  practise  produces  a  reduction  in  the 
number  of  corrective  movements  that  parallels  fairly  closely 
the  reduction  in  time.  Correlations  between  time  and  errors 
obtained  by  Miss  Weidensall  are  for  the  students  0.63,  for  the 
maids  0.87,  for  the  reformatory  women  0.61.  My  own  work 
with  college  students  has  given  a  correlation  of  0.86,  P.E.  .04. 

(8)  Reliability.  Burt  and  Moore  give  this  coefficient  as  0.52. 
The  method  used  at  Texas  is  evidently  superior,  since  the  coeffi- 
cient of  relation  between  the  first  and  second  test,  as  above 
stated,  amounts  to  0.79,  and  thus  assures  satisfactory  relia- 
bility. 

(9)  Various  correlations.  Miss  Calfee's  tests  of  Texas  fresh- 
men included  three  tests  previously  used  by  Burt,  viz.:  card 
dealing,  card  sorting  and  alphabet  sorting.  Correlations  found 
by  Burt  between  mirror-drawing  and  these  three  tests  when 
applied  to  school  children  were  0.40,  0.34  and  0.29,  respectively : 
those  found  by  Miss  Calfee  for  school  children  were  only  0.11, 
0.26  and  0.06,  for  freshmen  men  0.19,  0.11  and  0.22,  and  for 
freshmen  women  0.37,  0.20  and  0.29,  respectively.  Save,  then, 
for  the  last  mentioned  correlation,  her  figures  are  invariably 
lower  than  those  of  Burt.     Other  'corrected'  correlations  re 


rBST  uO  :    MIBRO&-DBAW1NG  L^^^J    ^^ 

ported  by  Burt  for  mirror-drawing  (average  correlations  for 
various  groups)  are:  tapping  0.74,  dotting  apparatus  0.92,  spot- 
pattern  tesl  <>.7r>,  immediate  memory  0.38,  discrimination  of 
pitch  ().<;(>,  comparison  of  line  lengths  0.55,  esthesiometer  0.38, 
discrimination  of  lifted  weights  0.30. 

(10)  Qualitative  aspects.  Efficiency  in  mirror-drawing  may 
result  from  the  actual  formation  of  new  visual  motor  co-ordi- 
nations (indeed,  sonic  S's  after  executing  a  number  of  drawings. 
find  that,  for  a  short  time  immediately  thereafter,  these  new 
co-ordinations  interfere  with  normal  drawing  or  writing)  ;  but 
efficiency  may  also  result,  at  least  in  the  star  test,  from  the 
voluntary  inhibition  of  visual  control  in  favor  of  kinesthetic 
control,  /'.  c,  by  thinking  the  drawing  of  a  star  in  motor  terms, 
as  if  working  with  the  eyes  shut.  Or,  the  hand-movements  may 
be  started  in  this  manner  and  then  carried  out  by  visual  con- 
trol from  the  mirror.  Finally,  adults  occasionally  control  the 
drawing  ideationals,  i.  c.  by  applying  inferred  properties  of 
reflection  by  mirrors. 

It  is  evident  that  the  existence  of  these  qualitative  differences 
may  affect  the  test  in  such  a  way  that  the  quantitative  data  for 
different  &'s  may  'measure'  different  mental  processes. 

Very  slow.  $'s  get  'caught'  at  certain  difficult  points  of  the 
drawing,  where  they  make  a  long  series  of  futile  attempts  to 
Starl  in  the  right  direction.  Here  the  normal  visual-motor 
control  is  too  persistent  to  he  readily  broken  or  ignored. 

Notes. — A  further  study  of  the  associative  connections  in- 
volved in  mirror-drawing  may  he  made  by  the  use  of  dot-tapping 
through  a  prism  or  of  the  various  forms  of  mirror-writing. 

For  the  first  test,  let  $  shut  his  left  eye,  and  strike  repeatedly 
with  his  right  forefinger  at  a  mark  on  the  wall  or  table-top, 


cOn  mirror-writing,  consull  Ai>t,  Allen,  Downey,  Laprade,  Lochte, 
Ordahl,  Rowe,  Strack,  Weber,  and  Wegener.  The  most  elaborate  st et is- 
tical  study  is  that  of  Lochte,  who  examined  2804  pupils  in  Berlin,  and 
found,  for  children  aged  6-7  years,  1.3.2  per  cent,  of  spontaneous  left-hand 
mirror-writing  in  hoys  and  25.4  per  cent  in  girls,  hut  for  children  aged 
13-14  years,  only  0.7  per  cent,  in  hoys  and  35  per  cent  iii  glrla  The  ten- 
dency toward  this  type  of  writing  appears,  therefore,  to  decrease  with 
age,  and  to  be  more  evident  in  girls  than  in  hoys. 

The  most  elaborate  qualitative  analysis  i,f  the  various  'controls'  used  in 
writing  is  that  of  Miss  Downey. 


L32    J  408]  ASSOCIATION,    LEARNING    AND    MEMORY 

making  about  one  stroke  per  second,  after  the  manner  pre- 
scribed in  the  test  of  precision  of  aiming  (No.  11).  After  this 
rhythmic  movement  has  become  well  established,  and  without 
interrupting  it  m  the  least,  place  suddenly  before  his  eye  a 
20  D.  prism,  with  the  base  toward  his  nose.  The  mark  is  thereby 
apparently  displaced  some  10  cm.  to  the  left.  Count  the  num- 
ber of  strokes  that  8  makes  before  he  hits  the  mark  again  (with 
the  prism  kept  before  the  eye) .  Similarly,  count  the  number  of 
strokes  necessary  to  hit  the  mark  again  when  the  prism  is  re- 
moved. 

For  the  second  test,  try  any  or  all  of  the  following: 

(1)  Close  the  eyes  and  write  with  both  hands  simultane- 
ously. Cases  will  then  appear,  particularly  in  young  children, 
of  spontaneous  mirror-writing  (writing  which  reads  correctly 
when  held  before  a  mirror)  with  the  left  hand.  If  this  ap- 
pears, see  if  S  can  write  normally  with  the  left  hand  when  his 
eyes  are  closed. 

(2)  Show  S  a  sample  of  mirror-writing.  Explain  its  nature. 
Ask  him  to  write  in  a  similar  manner,  first  with  his  left,  then 
with  his  right  hand. 

(3)  Write  with  both  hands  simultaneously,  but  with  the 
left  intentionally  in  mirror-writing. 

(4)  Kead  normal  writing  when  seen  only  as  reflected  in  a 
mirror. 

(5)  Write  normally  while  watching  the  writing  in  the  mir- 
ror, i.  e.,  with  hand  and  paper  hidden  from  direct  observation, 
as  in  the  star  test. 

REFERENCES 

(1)  G.  AM,  L'ecriture  en  miroir.    AnPs,  8:   1001  (1002),  221  -225. 

(2)  F.  J.  Alien,  Mirror-writing.    Brain,  19:   1800,385-7. 

(3)  C.  Burt,  Experimental  tests  of  general  intelligence.  BrJPs,  3  :  De- 
cember, 1009,  04-177,  especially  145-0. 

(4)  C.  Burt,  Experimental  tests  of  higher  mental  processes  and  their 
relation  to  general  intelligence.    JEPd,  1 :    1011,  03-112. 

(5)  C.  Burt  and  R.  C.  Moore,  The  mental  differences  between  the 
sexes.     JEPd,  1 :    1012,  273-284.  355-388. 

(G)  Marguerite  Calfee,  College  freshmen  and  four  general  intelligence 

tests.  JEdPs,  4:    1013,  223-231. 

(7)  W.  F.  Dearborn,  Experiments  in  learning.  JEdPs,  1:  1910,  373- 
388. 

(8)  June  E.  Downey.     (a)  Control  processes  in  modified  hand-writ- 


i  i:si    37  :    SUBS!  l  i  i  l  ION  [49'Jj    133 

Ing:   an  experimental  study.     PsMon,  9:   April,  L908,  No.  37.    Pp.  158. 
(b)  On  the  reading  and  writing  of  mirror-script    PbR,  -\  :  1914,  408  141. 

(9)  v.  Henri,  Revne  generate  sur  le  sens  musculaire.  AnP«,5:  1898 
(1899),  399  513,  especially  504  508.  I  Also  Deber  die  aaumwahrnehmnngen 
ilcs  TastsiiiiH's.     I'.rrlin,  1898.     Pp.  228,  especially  p.  1  1".  i 

(10)  l>.  s.  Hill  (a)  Class  and  practise  experiments  upon  the  learning 
process.  PsB,8:  1911.70-71.  (o)  Minor  studies  In  learning  and  relearn- 
ing.     JEdPs,  5:    191  I.  375  380. 

(11)  c.  II.  Judd,  Laboratory  manual  of  psychology.    New  York,  1907. 

(12)  A.  Laprade,  Contributions  a  I'etude  de  L'§criture  en  mlroir.  1902. 

(13)  Lochte,  Beitrag  zur  Kenntnis  <\<-<  7orkommens  a.  der  Bedeutung 
der  Spiegelschrift.  Arch.  /'.  Psychiatric  u.  VervenJcrankhelten,  28:  1890, 
379  110. 

Mil  Louise  B.  Ordahl,  Consciousness  In  relation  to  learning.  AmJPs, 
22  :    191 1.  158  213,  especially  193f. 

(15)  ];.  <  -.  [{owe,  Voluntary  movement.  AmJPs,  21:  1910,  513-562, 
especially  537ff. 

(1G)  1 ».  Starch,  a  demonsti'atioa  of  the  trial  and  error  method  of 
learning.    PsB,7:   January.  1910,20-23. 

(17)  M.  Strack,  Mirror  writing  and  left-handedness.  1'ilsr,  2:  ls'.i:*.. 
230-244. 

I  18)  <;.  M.  Stratton,  The  spatial  harmony  of  touch  and  sight  Mind, 
i).  s.  7:    1899,  192-505. 

(19)  H.  Weber,  Spiegelschrift  u.  Lenkschrift.    Zeits.  f.  klin.  Med.,  27. 

(20)  II.  Wegener,  Die  Spiegelschrift    ZPs,  1:   1899,  254-269. 

(21)  Jean  Weidensall,  The  mentality  of  the  criminal  woman.  To 
appear  in  EdPsMon. 

{■2-2)  C.  s.  Yoakum  and  Marguerite  Calfee,  An  analysis  of  the  mirror- 
drawing  experiment.    JF.ilPx,  I:    101.'!,  L'S:; -202. 

TEST  37 

Substitution. — This  lest  is  one  of  many  that  may  be  devised 
to  measure  the  rapidity  with  which  now  associations  are  formed 
l>y  repetition.  The  name  commonly  applied  to  the  tost  arises 
from  the  process  that  ii  involves,  in  which  8  is  called  upon  tn 
substitute  for  one  set  of  characters  (letters,  digits,  familiar 
geometrical  forms,  etc.)  another  se1  of  characters  in  accordance 
with  n  plan  set  before  him  in  a  printed  key.  The  procedure 
differs  from  mosl  memory  tests  or  exercises  of  memorizing  in 
thai  the  connections  indicated  by  the  key  arc  not  committed 
to  memory  at  the  outset,  but  acquired  gradually  by  use  as  the 
test  proceeds. 

The  principle  embodied  in  such  a  tesi  obviously  admits  of 
numerous  variations  in  detail  of  application.  One  form  of 
substitution,  the  replacement  of  a  set  of  letters  by  another  set 
of  letters,  was  used  by  Lough  (7)  in  1902  for  a  class  exercise  in 
learning.     Another  and  more  elaborate  form  in  which  letters 


134    [500]         ASSOCIATION,    LEARNING    AND    MEMORY 

distributed  like  those  of  a  typewriter  keyboard  are  to  be  asso- 
ciated to  numerals  is  reported  by  Starch  and  Dearborn  to  have 
been  devised  by  Jastrow  and  used  several  years  ago  in  the  Wis- 
consin University  Laboratory.  In  recent  years  several  varia- 
tions, some  simpler,  some  more  difficult,  have  appeared. 

The  substitution  test  seems  primarily  to  have  been  developed 
as  a  useful  demonstration  and  class  experiment  for  the  study 
of  the  psychology  of  learning  and  of  the  practise  curve  (Dear- 
born, Starch,  Lough,  Munn,  Kline).  It  has  also  been  used  to 
study  racial  differences  (Baldwin,  Pyle),  to  trace  the  effect  of 
dental  treatment  on  general  ability  (Kohnky),  to  compare 
delinquent  and  normal  individuals  (Baldwin,  Weidensall)  and 
as  one  test  of  the  capacity  of  working  children  (Woolley  and 
Fischer).  Incidentally,  of  course,  the  relation  of  learning 
ability  to  age,  sex  and  school  training  has  been  the  object  of 
investigation. 

Three  forms  of  test  material  are  here  presented:  the  first 
and  second,  which  are  modifications  of  a  form  devised  by  W.  F. 
Dearborn  (3),  may  be  used  with  adults  or  older  children;  the 
third,  which  has  been  devised  by  Mrs.  Woolley  and  used  by 
Miss  Kohnky  and  Miss  Weidensall  as  well  as  Mrs.  Woolley, 
is  much  simpler  and  better  adapted  for  younger  or  less  capable 
children.1 

A.      STANDARD   FORM    FOR    INDIVIDUAL    PROCEDURE    ( SYMBOL-DIGIT 

TEST) 

Materials. — Stop-watch,  preferably  split-second.  ('over- 
board with  key.    Test  strips. 

The  cover-board,  about  18x36  cm.,  is  so  constructed  as  to  furnish  a  sort 
of  'tunnel'  through  which  the  test-strips  may  slide  as  fast  as  they  are  writ- 
ten :  it  also  carries  a  printed  key  consisting  of  9  circles,  within  each  one 
of  which  is  a  digit  (from  1  to  9)  and  a  symbol  (square,  asterisk,  etc.) 

The  test-strips,  about  11.5  x  50  cm.,  contain  forty  5-place  series  of  sym- 
bols like  those  of  the  key,  together  with  forty  5-place  empty  squares. 


'If  a  test  more  difficult  than  any  of  those  described  here  is  desired, 
reference  may  be  had  to  the  form  proposed  by  Gray  (4)  and  used  with 
some  modification  by  Baldwin  (1).  The  Maltese  Cross  test  arranged  by 
Mrs.  Squire,  and  also  tried  by  Carpenter,  proved  undesirable,  apparently 
in  part  because  it  was  too  easy.  Much  the  same  thing  may  be  said  of  her 
Colored  Forms  test,  which  represents  still  another  quite  simple  variety 
f>f  substitution  tost. 


I  i.st   37:    SUBSTITUTION  [501]     133 

Method. — Lay  the  cover-board  upon  the  table.  Insert  a  teat- 
strip  in  such  a  manner  thai  the  firsl  (top)  line  of  characters 
comes  just  below  the  lower  edge  of  the  over  and  hence  just 
beneath  the  key. 

Cover  tlic  key  and  do  nol  allow  8  to  examine  H  before  the 
test,  save  as  specified  below. 

Give  8  the  following  explanation :  "You  will  And  before  you 
on  the  table  a  card  on  which  there  arc  nine  circles.  In  each 
circle  you  will  find  one  of  the  numbers  from  1  to  9,  and  a 
symbol,  i.  e.,  a  small  character  or  drawing.  Then,  you  will  find 
a  strip  of  paper  with  rows  of  the  same  characters,  and  with 
empty  squares  beside  them.  Whai  you  are  to  do  is  to  write 
iu  these  empty  squares  the  numbers  that  correspond  with  the 
characters.  Keep  at  work  continuously,  as  fast  as  you  can, 
until  you  have  filled  in  all  the  empty  squares  on  the  paper.  Of 
course,  you  will  have  to  look  hack  and  forth  from  the  paper 
to  the  circles  to  find  out  what  number  to  use.  unless  you  can, 
after  a  while,  remember  some  of  tne  numbers  without  looking 
at  them." 

With  young  8%  this  verbal  explanation  will  be  insufficient 
to  make  the  task  clear.  II  will  dO  no  harm,  in  such  cases,  to 
show  8,  for  a  brief  instant,  the  card  of  circles  and  a  test-strip 
that  has  already  been  filled  out.  Let  him  see  them  just  long 
enough  to  make  the  Instructions  clear,  but  not  long  enough  to 
permit  him  to  learn  any  of  the  combinations. 

Start  the  watch  when  S  starts  the  first  line:  keep  the  watch 
in  view,  but  out  of  8's  sight:  record,  without  stopping  the 
watch,  the  position  of  the  second-hand  when  8  completes  every 
5th  line  (indicated,  for  this  purpose,  by  a  heavier  division-line 
in  the  test-strip). 

As  fast  as  8  finishes  a  line  (or  two  lines),  push  the  strip 
forward  to  bring  a  fresh  line  of  symbols  Into  position  at  the 
lower  edge  of  the  cover. 

When  the  40th  line  is  written,  conceal  the  key;  immediately 
turn  over  the  test-strip,  write  on  it  the  digits  1  to  9,  and  ask  8 
to  place  above  each  digit  the  character  that  accompanies  it. 
Ascertain,  if  possible,  whether  8  relied  upon  visual,  auditory, 
visual-auditory,  or  some  other  type  of  associative  Imagery 


136    [502]         ASSOCIATION,    LEARNING   AND    MEMORY 

Treatment  of  Data.— Check  up  the  test-strip  for  errors. 
Compare  S's  with  respect  to  (1)  their  time  for  the  whole  test, 
(2)  their  gain  in  the  last,  as  related  to  their  speed  in  the  first 
5-line  section,  (3)  their  accuracy,  and  (4)  their  knowledge  of 
the  symbols  (crediting  1  for  each  symbol  correctly  reproduced, 
and  1  for  each  pair  of  transposed  symbols).  Plot  graphs  show- 
ing the  variation  in  speed  for  the  eight  sections. 

C.       FORM    FOR   GROUP   TESTS,   OR   FOR   SUPPLEMENTARY    INDIVIDUAL 
TESTS    (DIGIT-SYMBOL  TEST) 

Materials.— Printed  form,  at  the  top  of  which  are  shown  0 
circles,  as  in  Form  A  (save  that  different  symbols  are  used), 
and  in  the  body  of  which  is  provided,  in  two  columns,  a  series 
of  forty  5-place  numbers  and  forty  5-place  blank  squares  in 
which  the  appropriate  symbols  are  to  be  placed.    Stop-watch. 

Method.— For  individual  tests,  give  instructions  similar  to 
those  for  Form  A,  with  such  modifications  as  the  altered  ar- 
rangement of  the  material  necessitates.  Make  clear,  especially, 
that  the  second  column  is  to  be  filled  out  the  moment  that  the 
first  is  completed. 

For  group  tests,  supplement  the  instructions  by  an  adequate 
blackboard  explanation,  preferably  with  an  illustration  so  de- 
vised as  not  to  give  information  concerning  the  symbols  to  be 
used.  Have  the  papers  distributed,  face  down,  to  be  turned 
over  only  at  the  command  to  start.  Work  by  the  time-limit 
method,  allowing  4  min.  for  the  test.  Instruct  &'s  to  place  an 
oblique  mark  at  the  point  reached  when  the  command  "mark"' 
is  heard.  Give  this  signal  every  30  sec,  so  that  the  work  is 
divided  into  8  periods  of  30  sec.  each.  Conclude  with  the 
symbol-test  as  in  the  individual  method.  Plot  curves  for  30 
sec.  intervals. 

Variations  of  Method.— (1)  Cut  off  the  top  of  the  form  and 
glue  the  pattern  of  circles  on  a  sheet  of  cardboard,  as  in  Form 
A.  Cut  and  paste  the  two  test-columns  to  form  a  single,  long 
column,  as  in  Form  A.  This  will  permit  check-tests,  comparable 
with  the  standard  method,  save  that  here  symbols,  there  digits 
are  written. 


PEST   .'iT  :    si  B8TITUTI0N  [503]     L37 

(2)  Repeat  either  Form  A  or  Form  i;  after  an  interval  of 
several  hours,  days,  or  weeks,  to  compare  the  permanence,  in 
different  8's,  of  the  associative  connections  established  in  a 
single  trial. 

(3)  Repeal  Form  A  uiiiil  the  associations  are  firmly  estab- 
lished, and  the  digits  can  be  written  rapidly  without  seeing 
the  pattern.  Ascertain  whether  the  use  of  Form  I!  will  then 
develop  interference  of  associations. 

(4)  Cover  op  the  key  in  either  Form  A  or  Form  1!  when  the 
last  section  (last  quarter  or  last  eighth)  of  the  test  is  reached 
so  as  to  produce  a  test  of  $'s  ability  to  continue  the  work  from 
memory,  like  that  described  for  Form  < '. 

C.      CINCINNATI   SYMBOL-DIGIT  TEST 

Materials. — Four  test  sheets  of  geometrical  forms,  each  con- 
taining- ten  rows,  r>  units  per  row,  of  nine  different  forms. 
Cardboard  with  printed  key.    Cardboard  cover,    stop-watch. 

METHOD. — Put  before  8  the  first  test  sheet  and  set  the  key 
where  it  can  he  seen  easily.  The  following  are  the  instinct  ions 
then  given  by  Woolley  and  Fischer: 

''You  see  this  page  of  figures  [forms],  Now  on  this  card  I 
have  the  same  figures,  hut  each  figure  has  a  number  in  it.  What 
I  want  yon  to  do  is  to  write  in  each  figure  on  this  page  the 
Dumber  that  you  see  in  the  same  figure  on  that  card.  For  in- 
stance, what  figure  would  you  put  in  here?  [/•;  points  to  one 
of  the  figures  which  might  easily  he  confused  with  another 
one — the  inverted  triangle  or  the  U,  and  corrects  8  if  he  makes 
a  mistake.  |  And  in  here  [pointing  to  one  of  the  'unique' 
figures]  ?  I  want  you  to  begin  here  at  the  top  of  the  page  and 
till  the  figures  in.  in  rows,  just  as  you  come  to  them.  As  you 
finish  each  row,  I  will  cover  it  up  with  this  piece  of  cardboard; 
this  way.  Now  begin,  and  see  how  fast  you  can  gel  the  whole 
page  done." 

The  time  is  taken  from  the  moment  8  begins  to  look  on  the 
key  for  his  first  number  to  the  moment  he  writes  the  last  one.  , 
The  second  test  sheet  is  then  given  with  the  instruction  :    "Now 
fill  in  this  j.age  the  same  way,  ami  see  if  you  can  do  it  faster 
this  time." 


13S     [504]  ASSOCIATION.    LEARNING    AND    MEMORY 

The  third  test  sheet  follows,  with  the  instruction :  "Fill  in 
this  page  and  try  to  do  it  still  faster.  When  you  finish  this 
page,  I  will  take  the  card  away,  and  then  I  want  you  to  try  to 
fill  in  the  last  page  just  from  memory." 

(8  is  allowed  to  correct  any  errors  that  he  may  note  before 
the  line  is  covered.  The  covering  is  done  to  insure  that  each 
line  in  the  first  three  sheets  is  done  from  the  key  and  cadi  line 
in  the  last  sheet  from  memory,  never  from  the  previous  records. 
Variation  of  Method. — If  S  scores  less  than  98  per  cent. 
accuracy  on  Sheet  4,  it  is  instructive  to  give  another  drill  sheet, 
followed  by  a  second  test  of  substitution  from  memory,  and  to 
continue  alternating  sheets  filled  in  with  the  key  and  without 
the  key  until  this  degree  of  accuracy  is  secured.  The  number 
of  extra  trials  needed  forms  a  useful  indication  of  relative 
learning  capacity,  especially  in  the  case  of  rather  incom- 
petent *S"s. 

Treatment  of  Data. — For  each  test  sheet,  taken  separately, 
is  figured  the  time,  the  accuracy  and  an  index  of  efficiency  com 
puted  from  the  time  and  the  accuracy.  Accuracy  is  calculated 
by  subtracting  from  100  per  cent.  2  per  cent,  for  each  error  or 
omission.  The  index  is  found  by  dividing  the  obtained  time 
by  the  accuracy.  In  the  first  three  sheets  this  index  may  be 
regarded  as  indicating  approximately  the  time  needed  to  make 
the  substitutions  without  error.  In  the  fourth  sheet  the  index 
is  evidently  a  more  arbitrary  measure,  since  an  error  in  sub- 
stituting from  memory  might  not  be  remedied  by  any  amount 
of  extension  of  the  time. 

Speaking  generally,  the  learning  capacity  of  a  given  S  is 
indicated  not  alone  by  his  performance  Avith  the  4th  sheet,  but 
also  by  his  index  for  the  first  three  sheets,  i.  e.,  while  the  4th 
sheet  shows  whether  the  associative  connections  have  been  made 
correctly  or  not,  the  work  with  the  other  sheets  shows  how 
long  a  time  was  used  iu  establishing  these  connections.- 

Kesults. —  (1)  Norms  for  the  three  substitution  tests  are  now 
available  in  sufficiently  satisfactory  form  for  most  purposes. 

-It  would  seem  possible  that  sonic  measure  or  learning  capacity  might 
be  calculated  from  the  relation  between  performance  with  the  4th  and 
with  the  other  sheets,  though  the  Cincinnati  investigators  have  contented 
themselves  with  the  treatment  quoted. 


DBS!    ;17  :    BUBS!  l  l  I   i  ION 


[505]    13!) 


Tables  81  and  82  give  results  for  college  students  with  Form  B. 
Tables  83  and  84  give  Pyle's  results  with  Form  B  and  Form  A. 
respectively,  Cor  both  sexes  and  ages  from  8  years  upward. 
Table  85  gives  some  of  ihe  more  important  aorms  compiled 
at  Cincinnati  for  753  children  14.  and  679  children  1~>  years  <>1<1 

TABLE    si 

Substitution  Vest.    Nvmlcroj  Symbols  Written.    Form  /.'.    Group  \£t 

(Whipple) 


THIRTY-SEC.  PERIOD 

1ST 

2d 

3d       4  th 

5th 

6TH 

7th 

8th 

TOTAL 

SYMBOL 
SCORE 

Average,  ^men- 
Average,  28  women 
Fastest  individual 
Slowest  individual 

13.7 

13.9 
10.0 
11.0 

16.1 

15.4 
21.0 
13.0 

14.6    If,.:; 

16.0    17.9 

22.0   18.0 

S.O   10.0 

LIB 
16.0 
23.0 

12.0 

17.2 

17.n 
20.0 
10.0 

16.7 
16.8 

25.0 
11.0 

17.9 
19.0 
26.0 
L3.0 

127.3 
L32.0 
L65.0 

95.0 

8 

8.2 
9 
3 

TABLE    82 

Substitution  Test.    Speed  in  Seconds.    Form  B. 

{Whipph  i 


Iii'iiri'iiKii  Method 


SECTION  OF  5   LINES 

1st 

2d 

3d 

4th 

5th 

6  th 

7th 

VT1I       TOTAL 

Average,  13  men 

Average,  5  women 

Total,  18  oases 

Fastest  individual 

Slowest  individual 

54.0 

45.8 
51.8 
42.0 
63.0 

4i;.o 

41.2 

44.7 
35.0 
58.0 

45.8 

40.6 
44.3 
33.0 
59.0 

14.8 

:;\i; 
43.1 
30.0 
61.0 

46.1 
L3.4 

45.4 
36.0 
62.0 

44.4 

37.6 
42.5 
29.0 
53.0 

47.7 
36.fi 
44.6 
31.0 
60.0 

44.3  373.1 
35.0   318.8 
41.7   358.1 
31.0   270.0 
65.0   4S1.0 

TABLE    83 
Correct  Substitutions  Made  in  60  Sec.    Digit-Symbol  Test  (Pyh  I. 


SEX 

AGE 

8 

9 

10 

u 

12   i    13 

14 

15 

ir, 

17 

18 

ADULT 

Cases 

34 

58    50     1 9    56    62    48    35    31     14    17 

67 

Male 

Aver. 

10.3 

12.6  15.4  16.3  19.1  22.621.1  24.7,24.8,23.828.7 

29.3 

A.  D. 

3.5 

1.1    3.9   3.6   -",.1    5.8    1.5   4.6  5,1   4,3   3.5 

8.7 

Cases 

37 

61    58    49    68     19    46    34    it',    3* 

Female 

Aver. 

13.0 

15.7  18.8  18.5  22.7  23. 1  26.8  26.8  27.5  28.5  25.9 

32.2 

A.  D. 

3.2 

1.1    1.1    1.1    l.:i   5.2   5.0  4.7   5.3   5.7    7.0 

.,. 

140    [506]  ASSOCIATION,    LEARNING    AND    MEMORY 


TABLE    84 

Correct  Substitution*  Made  in  60  Sec.    Symbol-Digit  Test  (Pyle). 


SEX 

AGE 

8 

9 

10 

n 

12 

13 

14 

15 

16 

17 

18 

ADULT 

Cases 

37 

72 

76    62 

75    78 

59    45    38 

20    17 

56 

Male 

Aver. 

10.0  13.2  16.5  17.7  19.3  20.7  23.3  25.8  27.8  26.1  28.0 

33.0 

A.  D. 

5.3  5.0 

5.8.  5.1   5.4   5.7   5.4   5.9 

6.3   7.4   5.1 

9.3 

Cases  :  41    82 

82    63  '  89  '  66    62    44 

55    43    29 

89 

Female 

Aver. 

10.9 

16.0 

19.9  19.6  23.1  25.6  27.4  29.7  29.1  32.0  33.1 

31.3 

A.  D. 

5.3 

5.2 

6.4   6.3   6.6   6.4i  6.1   6.7  5.3   6.3  4.4 

5.4 

applying  for  working  certificates.3  From  data  kindly  supplied 
me  by  Mrs.  Woolley  I  have  constructed  also  the  percentile 
curves,  Figs.  67  and  68,  for  the  same  groups  of  children. 

(2)  Dependence  on  age.  Pyle's  averages,  with  two  excep- 
tions, show  that  the  capacity  in  the  substitution  test  improves 
every  year  from  8  to  18r  both  in  boys  and  in  girls.  The  Cin- 
cinnati children  at  15  surpass  their  14-year-old  records,  with 
every  page  and  in  both  speed  and  accuracy  :  the  difference  is  too 
pronounced  to  be  due  to  the  repetition  of  the  test,  since  differ- 
ent keys  were  employed  in  the  two  trials. 

(3)  Dependence  on  sex.  Fyle's  averages  show  that  the  girls 
make  more  correct  substitutions  than  the  boys  at  every  age 
from  8  to  18,  with  a  single  exception  (age  18,  digit-symbol  test). 
In  the  three  test  sheets  the  Cincinnati  girls  are  slightly  superior 
to  boys  in  index,  while  the  sex  differences  in  accuracy  are  too 
small  and  inconsistent  to  be  significant,  so  that  speed  is  the 
important  factor  in  the  better  index  of  the  girls.  With  the 
4th  (memory)  sheet,  there  is  no  difference  in  index  at  14,  but 
the  girls  are  superior  at  15.  Girls  at  15  also  slightly  surpass 
boys  in  accuracy  on  the  4th  sheet. 

(4)  Dependence  on  race.  B.  T.  Baldwin  tested  37  white  and 
30  negro  girls  at  a  Pennsylvania  Reform  School  for  16  prac- 
tise days,  5  min.  per  day,  after  eliminating  3  whites  and  14 
negroes  who  failed  to  attain  50  per  cent,  accuracy.    Table  86 


•Consult  Woolley  and  Fischer  for  table  showing  norms  of  accuracy  and 
for  numerous  graphs  of  distribution  for  the  substitution  index  in  rela- 
tion to  school  grade. 


•  It  :    81  i;si  ill   ii"- 


[507]    141 


TABLE    85 
Substitution  Jn'h  i,  in  Sec.,  Cincinnati  Working  Children  {Woolley  <iml 

FiSChi  it. 


SHEET   2 


Boys      Girls     Boys       Girls 


SHEET   3 


Boys      Girls 


SHEET  4 


Boys  Girls 


Best 

75th  Perc. 

]|    50th  Perc, 

25th  Perc. 

[Worst— 

fBest 

75th  Perc. 

15  {50th  Pore. 

1 25th  Perc. 

[Worst—- 


71.ii 

83.3 

68.5 

117.li    142.0    115.7    108.7 

L72.7    162.6 

133.2    130.4 

200.9    185.6 

157.11 

154.0 

100.0    U9.5 

378.0 

298.4 

s-:: 

98.4 

55.0 

67.4 

137.3 

130.4 

I04.fi 

L03.6 

157.3 

i  in.i; 

123.7 

119.0 

I7!).ii 

171.6 

1 15.7 

138.1 

28G.G 

307.8 

241.3 

295.1 

59.4 

:,:,, 

63.0 1 

97.4 

940 

89.6 

115.9 

112.7 

111.2 

138.4 

134.8 

1  k:; 

276.4 

242.9 

1,257.6 

54.0 

59.2 

52.6 

92.0 

91.9 

84.4  i 

lin.7 

108.7 

104.9  I 

133.4 

128.7 

145.7 

355.5 

248.6 

906.5 

52.3 

112.6 
150.5 
525.  l 

50.6 

85.3 

103.9 

139.3 

19,875.0 


•To  which  should  be  added  < ease  of  complete  failure    accuracy  only 

ii  per  cent,  and  lnde>  60,000.  In  comparing  this  table  with  the  original 
text  ii  should  be  noted  thai  I  have  reversed  the  designations  of  the  per- 
centiles, so  that  100  per  cept.  here  would  represent  the  quickesl  perform- 
ance (smallest  index  i. 

shows  clearly  the  superiority  of  the  whiles.  In  general,  the 
negroes  make  only  62.4  per  cent,  as  many  substitutions  and 
245.1}  per  cent,  as  many  errors  as  the  whites.    The  fact  thai  the 


TABLE    86 

Average  Number  of  Substitution's  Made  by  •>'?  White  and  SO  Negiti  Girls 
in  a  Pennsylvania  Reformatory  {Baldwin) 


TRIAL                             1 

2 

3             4 

5             6 

8 

9 

Whites 23.8 

Negroes 22.6 

42.6 
27.6 

16.7 

31.2 

54.2 

35.8 

61.7 

46.9 

64.9 

48.0 

67.8 
53.9 

78.3 
57.7 

79.6 
61.5 

13 


li 


16 


Whites 86.9     85.9     S9.5     94.1     93.7 

Negroes (14.7     70.6     71.6     76.0     78.1 


L00.1 
72.3 


116.5 


72.3 

55.8 


142    [508]  ASSOCIATION;    LEARNING    AND    MEMORY 

average  age  of  the  whites  is  somewhat  greater  (1G.7  vs.  15.1 
years)  by  no  means  accounts  for  these  differences.  Baldwin 
notes  that  there  are  also  distinct  qualitative  differences  in  the 
work  of  the  two  races :  negro  girls  are  slower  to  warm  up  to  the 
task,  and  first  to  drop  back  and  lose  interest :  they  cannot  be 
forced  or  stimulated  easily,  except  temporarily  through  flat 
tery:  their  work  is  more  irregular,  more  subject  to  moods,  less 
accurate  and  less  neat.  "They  are  partially  occupied  with  the 
task  in  hand  and  partially  with  a  random  activity,  which  con- 
sists in  mumbling,  grumbling,  humming  or  saying  original  and 
funny  things.  This  second  attitude  seems  a  common  trait  with 
the  race  unless  consciously  inhibited."4 

(5)  Dependence  on  practise,  (a)  Practise-effects  within  the 
single  trial  of  the  substitution  test  are  revealed,  of  course,  by 
comparison  of  the  rate  and  accuracy  of  the  work  in  the  different 
sections  or  sheets  into  which  the  material  is  divided.  With 
Form  A  or  Form  B  the  increase  in  speed  in  the  8th  as  over 
the  1st  section  amounts  to  some  10  to  20  per  cent.  This  im- 
provement is  not  acquired  uniformly,  however,  from  section  to 
section.  On  the  contrary,  as  Tables  81  and  82  show,  there  is 
a  tendency  toward  a  decrease  of  efficiency  at  about  the  middle 
of  the  work.  Thus,  in  the  individual  tests  both  men  and 
women,  taken  collectively,  show  a  reduction  of  speed  in  the  5th 
section :  similarly,  in  the  group  tests  both  men  and  women 
write  fewer  symbols  in  the  5th  than  in  the  4th  30-sec.  period. 

In  the  individual  tests,  the  4th  section  conies  at  the  hottom  of  the  first 
column,  the  5th  at  the  top  of  the  second  column.  The  brief  delay  occa- 
sioned by  the  necessary  readjustment  (of  paper,  pencil,  attention,  etc.) 
may  explain  a  part,  but  only  a  part  of  the  reduction  in  time. 

A  plausible  explanation  is  that  reported  by  one  8,  who  noted  thai,  in 
Section  4.  being  so  far  from  the  circles,  she  relied  upon  her  memory, 
whereas  in  Section  5,  the  very  proximity  of  the  circles  tempted  her  to 
glance  at  them  to  make  sure  of  her  work,  and  thus  to  work  more  slowly.5 


4Since  the  above  was  written,  Pyle  (9a)  has  published  the  results  of 
an  investigation  in  the  public  schools  of  Missouri  which  discloses  a 
similar  inferiority  of  negroes  to  whites  in  the  substitution  test.  Speak- 
ing in  general  terms,  the  negroes  are  less  than  half  as  efficient  as  the 
whites  in  the  test. 

'Form  A  has  been  devised  especially  to  avoid  the  variation  in  distance 
of  test-blanks  from  the  pattern  at  different  periods  of  the  work. 


TEST   37:    si  BSTI'J  I 


[509]    L43 


To  test  this  hypothesis,  trials  were  made  with  L0  college  students,  using 
material  of  Form  B,  bul  rearranged   i  above)   t<>  resemble 

Form  a  1 1  lie  test-blank  in  one  long  <  olunm  sliding  beneath  tin-  cardboard). 
The  av<  ores,  in  sec.,  per  5-line  section,  were  55.7,  1s.1'',   14.0,  40.9, 

;.;.'/.  in.::,  41.5.  and  40.8,  for  the  Sections  l  in  8,  respe*  lively.    (Total  Hint*. 
354.8  sec;  symbol  score;  8.2).    There  Is,  then,  siiii  a  loss  of  more  than  2 

sir.    at    Si''  I  lOU   .". 

It  would  appear,  tberefoi'e,  either  thai  the  test-material  of  Section  5 
bappens  to  lie  more  difficult  than  thai  of  Sections  4  ami  6,  or  that,  as  a 
final  possibility,  the  slower  rale  in  Section  ."  is  merely  an  expression  of  a 
mental  condition  fatigue,  weariness,  loss  of  initial  enthusiasm.  That 
this  explanation  may  lie  entertained  is  shown  in  Table  s7.  where  it  will  be 
seen  that  although  more  6"S  l<  se  -|  eed  in  Ihe  5tb  than  in  any  other  sec- 
tion, there  are,  nevertheless,  numerous  instances  of  loss  of  speed  in  other 
portions  of  the  work,  espei  ially  in  Section  7.  The  S'a  <<i  Table  87  are  the 
lo  Jusl  mentioned,  and  the  18  of  Table  82, 


TABLB    ^7 
Substitution  Test,    Distribution  of  cuius  and  Losses  in  Speed  <  Whipph  1 


SECTIONS 


2-3     3-1      4-5      5-6      6-7      7-8 


Number  gaining  speed 21 

Number  losing  speed 4 

Number  maintaining  speed 0 


17 

16 

7 

8 

4 

4 

9 

16 

3 


12 
15 

1 


16 
8 

4 


i // 1  Special  investigations  upon  practise  in  this  test  have 
been  made  by  Starch,  Lough,  Kline  and  .Miss  .Munn.  starch's 
work,  which  is  confirmed  by  .Miss  Munn's,  shows  thai  relatively 
short,  distributed  practise  periods  arc  the  most  effective  (Fig. 
69)  ;  from  1<»  l<>  20  min.  seems  to  l>c  best,  at  least  for  adults. 
Lough  found  no  evidence  <>!'  plateaus  in  the  curve  of  improve- 
ment in  tests  lasting  from  20  t<>  '.mi  days.  .Miss  Munn  found  the 
typical  curve  of  improvement  to  l>c  rapid  in  rise  at  tirst.  then 
slower.  Children  were  slower  at  the  start,  but  gained  more, 
absolutely,  than  did  adults.  Curves  from  two  aged  S's  were 
similar  to  those  obtained  from  the  young.  Retrials  showed 
that  fairly  strong  practise-effects  persisted  for  at  least  as  lone. 

as  r>  nios. 

KM  tic  tested  the  effect  of  practise  in  one  form  of  substitution 
u\  on  performance  in  other  forms  of  substitution  and  found  that 
'practise  in  writing  digits  for  letters  is  transferred  with  favor- 
able effect  to  subsequent  work  in  writing  symbols  for  digits, 
but  is  transferred  with  unfavorable  effect   to  subsequent  work 


144    [510]  ASSOCIATION,    LEARNING    AND    MEMORY 


IO 


20       30        40        50       60 


70 


80      90 


60 

70 

80 

90 

/Oo 

no 

120 

130 

<// 

140 

150 

<*% 

^ 

160 

& 

/70 

^j0 

2^ 

/ao 

**   ^ 

/90 

200 

210 

220 

230  ! 

240 

FIG.  G7.      PERCENTILES  FOR  THE  SUBSTITUTION   INDEX  FOR  CINCINNATI   WORK- 
ING CHILDREN  14  AND  15  YEARS  OLD SHEET  1 

(After  Wool  ley  and  Fischer) 


1 1581   o7  :  subsi  iii  ii' 


[511]    L43 


10         ZO        30        AO        50        CO        70  SO     QO 


i  Hi.   liS.      PERCENTILES  FOB  THE  SUBSTITUTION   INDEX  FOB  CINCINNATI   WOBK- 
l.\(i  CHILDREN    14  AM)   IS  VKAIIS  OLD— SHEET  4   (After 

Woolley  and  Fischer) 


lit)    [512]         ASSOCIATION;    LEARNING    AND    MEMORY 


14    15    16     17    18     19    20    31    32    23     24. 


FIG.   69.       EFFECT  OF  PRACTISE  PERIODS  OF   DIFFERENT  LENGTHS  UPON  PERFORM- 
ANCE IN   THE  SUBSTITUTION  TEST    ( Fl'OlU  Starch) 

Results  based  on  the  work  of  42  college  students.  Units  on  the  base- 
line represent  number  of  successive  5-min.  periods:  ordinates  represent 
number  of  substitutions  made  in  5  min.  Designations  attached  to  each 
curve  indicate  ibe  length  of  the  work  periods  of  each  group. 

in  writing  digits  for  symbols."  Moreover,  the  more  the  drill 
work  is  spread  out  in  time,  the  greater,  on  the  whole,  is  this 
interference  effect.  Here  the  interference  is  due,  of  course,  to 
1  he  fact  that  in  the  second  test-series  the  same  characters  must 
be  written  as  in  the  drill  series,  but  with  different  associative 
connections. 

(6)  Dependence  on  intelligence.  If  we  admit  that  the  school 
grade  reached  by  children  14  or  15  years  old  affords  a  good  in- 
dication of  their  general  intelligence,  it  follows  that  the  sub- 
stitution test  correlates  well  with  general  intelligence,  since 
there  was  found  at  Cincinnati  a  "positive  correlation  with 
school  grade  for  all  four  pages  of  the  test,  for  both  sexes,  and 
at  both  ages"  (15,  p.  153).    This  correlation  is  less  evident  with 


31         -'    !••<!  II  I     1  [ON 


[513]    147 


the  4tli  (memory)  sheet,  where  individual  differences  are  mosl 
manifest.  It  follows  thai  children  who  have  reached  higher 
school  grades  exhibit  a  Bomewhal  higher  performance  in  the 
memory  test  after  having  spent  a  decidedly  shorter  time  in  the 
process  of  learning.  The  above  results  pertain  to  the  substi- 
tution index  (Form  0)  :  as  to  accuracy,  i Ii.it  is  also  positively 
correlated  with  school  grade,  though  do1  so  markedly  oor  so 
consistently  as  the  index.  Similarly,  Woolley  and  Fischer 
report  that  some  of  the  S's  sent  to  them  under  suspicion  of 
mental  deficiency  were  able  to  attain  fair  success  with  the  4th 
sheet,  but  "required  a  far  longer  time,  often  more  than  twice 
the  time,  to  reach  the  result"   i  p.  244). 

The  author  has  compared  <!  dull  and  5  bright  grammar-school 
hoys  and  obtained  the  results  shown  in  Table  88.  Since,  with 
a  single  exception,  all  the  dull  boys  are  older  than  the  brighl 
boys — on  the  average  about  3  years  older — the  actual  difference 
in  capacity  between  the  two  groups  that  is  ascribable  to  intelli- 
gence is  much  greater  than  appears  from  (he  averages  obtained. 


Substitution  Test. 


TABLE    88 

Bright  and  Dull  Boys.    Form  It.    Individual  Method 
{Whipph  I 


BOY 

AGE 

SCHOOL 
GRAME 

"••"     'NSEC.|      8™|°L 

Dull 
Group 

H. 
K. 

N. 
M. 
B. 
S. 

16:9 
13:1 
14:9 
12:8 
12:6 
15:2 

7,  II 

5,  11 

6,  1 

ii.  1 

7,  II 
6,  I 

Tim                6 
742               8 
422                9 
975              1 

7ii7                4 
660               9 

Average                                14:2                                    701               6.17 

Br. 

11:11 

8,  1 

677 

9 

Hu. 

12:8 

6,  ir 

597 

5 

Bright 

Id. 

10:9 

6,  If 

566 

9 

Group 

Tr. 

10:4 

8,  ir 

648 

4 

Fe. 

10:8 

6,  II 

591 

9 

Average 

11:1 

615:8 

7.2 

14:8    [514 J         ASSOCIATION,    LEARNING   AND    MEMORY 

(7)  Dependence  on  physical  condition.  Miss  Kohuky  used 
the  Cincinnati  substitution  test  among  other  tests  with  pupils 
of  two  5th  grade  classes  in  that  city  in  her  study  of  the  effects 
of  dental  treatment  upon  physical  and  mental  efficiency.  The 
test  was  given  in  October  to  pupils  in  Room  18  and  Room  21, 
two  comparable  groups.  The  pupils  in  Room  21  were  then 
given  elaborate  dental  treatment,  those  in  Room  18  were 
given  none.  Both  groups  were  retested  in  the  following  May. 
The  score  for  the  untreated  room  was  201.G  for  the  1st  sheet  in 
October  and  110.5  for  the  4th  sheet  in  May,  a  total  gain  of 
91.1 :  the  score  for  the  treated  room  was  206.6  for  the  1st  sheet 
in  October  and  104.9  for  the  4th  sheet  in  May,  a  gain  of  101.6, 
from  which  it  is  argued  that  the  pupils  subject  to  dental  treat- 
ment developed  greater  'learning  power.' 

(8)  Delinquents.  Miss  Weidensall  tested  88  Bedford  Re- 
formatory women  and  also  a  group  of  Vassar  College  dormitory 
maids  with  the  material  of  Form  C.  She  found  that  the  various 
reformatory  groups  differed  more  from  one  another  in  speed 
than  in  accuracy,  that  both  the  college  maids  and  the  reforma- 
tory women  differed  from  the  Cincinnati  working  girls  more 
widely  on  Sheet  1  and  Sheet  4  than  on  Sheets  2  and  3,  from 
which  it  may  be  inferred  that  the  working  girls  make  a  quicker 
adjustment  to  the  task  and  reach  a  higher  accomplishment  in 
distinctly  less  time.  The  work  with  the  first  and  fourth  pages 
divided  the  reformatory  women  into  two  distinct  groups  which 
correspond  with,  and  confirm  the  school's  estimate  of  their 
intelligence :  thus,  when  the  women  are  divided  into  two  groups, 
55  per  cent,  of  the  below-grade  (schooling  less  than  Grade  5B) 
are  as  poor  in  index  of  substitution  for  Sheet  4  as  the  poorest 
quarter  of  the  grade  group.  Again,  when  the  women  are  divided 
into  smaller  groups  on  the  basis  of  years  of  schooling,  there  ap- 
pears a  positive  correlation  with  amount  of  schooling  that  is 
as  close  as  that  found  at  Cincinnati.  Reformatory  women  that 
had  reached  the  8th  grade  in  schools  were  better  than  15-year- 
old  Cincinnati  working  girls  in  both  accuracy  and  time  on  Sheet 
4,  but  elsewhere  the  reformatory  women  were  quite  generally 
inferior  to  the  working  girls,  and  the  inferiority  becomes  in- 
creasingly great  as  the  grade  at  which  the  reformatory  women 


TEST   -'!T  :    81  B81  in   DION 


[515]    lt'.t 


left  school  becomes  lower.  A  general  idea  of  the  inferiority 
i<  given  by  Table  89.  Finally,  the  correspondence  between  the 
results  <>f  the  test  and  general  ability  is  further  indicated  by 
a  correlation  of  0.48,  P.E.  .<»<!.  between  rank  mi  Sheel  1  ami 
native  ability  as  estimated  by  the  principal  of  the  Reformatory 
industrial  School. 

TABLE    89 

Differt  nces,  in  Sec.,  i,i<i<  ./•  of  Substitution,  Form  <'.  i><  twccn  Bedford  lliiix 

Reformatory  Women  and  Cincinnati   Working  Oirls  l'i 

ami  i.~,  Years  Old  <  Attn-  Weidensall) 


SHEET    1 

SHEET  4 

PERCENTILE 

25  th 

50th 

76th 

25th 

50  th 

75th 

1 1  Years 

-59.4 
-73.4 

-10.5 
24.5 

+6.0 

-6.5 

-IS},", 
-195.7 

-44.9 
-53.6 

-  8.1 

15  Years 

-11.3 

Plus  sign  indicates  thai  the  Bedford  group  is  Easter,  minus  sign  slower 
than  the  Cincinnati  group  with  which  it  is  compared.  The  order  of  per- 
centiles is  here  reversed  from  that  used  in  the  original  tables:  here  the 
75th  is  better  than  tiie  50th  percentile. 

Note. — S'a  who  make  the  fastest  records  commonly  employ 
the  scheme  of  holding  in  mind  the  entire  ."-place  number  (in 
Form  li).  and  writing  down  the  symbols  while  keeping  the  eves 
directed  upon  the  circles.  The  material  in  Form  A  lends  itself 
less  easily  to  this  scheme. 


REFERENCES 

(1)  It.  T.  Baldwin,  The  learning  of  delinquent  adolescent  girls  as 
shown  by  a  substitution  test,    .mill's.  4  :  1913,  317-332. 

(2)  D.  P.  Carpenter,  .Mental  age  tests.    JEdPs,  4  :  1013,  538-544 

(3)  \Y.  F.  Dearborn,  Experiments  in  learning.  JEdPs,  t:  1910,  373- 
388. 

ill  C.  T.  Gray,  A  hew  form  of  the  substitution  test.  JEdPs,  -l :  U  13, 
293-21  -7. 

(.">)  L.  W.  Kline.  Some  experimental  evidence  in  regard  to  formal  dis- 
cipline.    JEdPs.  5:  p.m.  259-266. 

((!)  Emma  Kohnky,  Preliminary  study  of  the  effect  of  a  dental  treat- 
ment upon  the  physical  and  mental  efficiency  of  school  children.  JEdPs, 
I:  1913,  569-578. 

(~)     J.  E.  Lough,  Plateaus  in  simple  learning.    PsBu,  9  :  1912,  87-88. 

(8)  Abble  V.  Munn.  The  curve  of  learning.    ArPs(e),  2:  1909,  36-52. 

(9)  W.  II.  Pyle.  The  examination  of  school  children.  New  York.  PH.". 
pp.  To.  especially  1s-•->'.,. 


150    [51GJ  ASSOCIATION,    LEARNING    AND    MEMORY 

(9a)  W.  II.  Pyle,  The  mind  of  the  negro  child.  School  and  Society, 
1 :  1915,  357-360. 

(10)  Carrie  It.  Squire.  Graded  mental  tests.  JEJPs,  3:  1912,  303-380, 
430-443,  493-500,  especially  432-4. 

(11)  D.  Starch,  Periods  of  work  in  learning.    JEdPs,  3  :  1912,  209-213. 

(12)  D.  Starch,  Experiments  in  educational  psychology.  New  York, 
1911.     Pp.  1S3,  especially  ch.  7. 

(13)  Joan  Weidensall,  The  mentality  of  the  criminal  woman.  To  ap- 
pear in  EdPsMon. 

(14)  R.  S.  Woodworth  and  F.  L.  Wells,  Association  tests.  PsMon,  13: 
1911   (No.  57).     Pp.  75,  especially  53-55. 

(15)  Helen  T.  Woolley  and  Charlotte  R.  Fischer.  Mental  and  physical 
measurements  of  working  children  (Studies  from  the  laboratory  of  the 
Vocation  Bureau,  Cincinnati.  Ohio).  I'sMoh,  18:  1914  (No.  77).  Pp.  217, 
especially  148-184. 

TEST  38 

Memory  for  serial  impressions:  'Rote'  memory.1 — The  essen 
tial  idea  in  the  several  forms  of  memory  test  treated  under  this 
title  is  to  present  a  series  of  discrete  impressions  (e.  </..  letters, 
digits,  words),  which  is,  if  possible,  to  be  reproduced  in  correct 
order  and  exactly  as  presented.  These  tests  are  to  be  con- 
trasted with  the  so-called  tests  of  'logical'  memory,  in  which  the 
material  presented  is  a  logically  connected  whole,  and  in  which 
the  requirement  is  to  reproduce  the  substance,  or  the  meaning, 
of  what  has  been  presented.  In  either  test,  the  reproduction 
may  be  immediate  or  delayed,  and  the  mode  of  presentation 
and  method  of  measuring  efficiency  may  be  varied  in  many  ways. 

Memory  for  a  series  of  discrete  impressions  has  been  used  to 
study  individual  differences,  as  conditioned  by  sex,  age,  mental 
ability;  to  detect  fatigue;  to  investigate  the  nature  of  practise, 
the  possibility  of  training  retention  and  recall,  the  most  eco- 
nomical methods  of  learning,  etc. 

To  understand  the  results  and  conclusions  of  the  smaH  army 
of  investigators  of  memory,  it  is  convenient  to  classify  the 
methods  and  the  materials  that  have  been  most  commonly 
used.2 


'The  author  desires  to  acknowledge  the  assistance  of  Dr.  L.  R.  Geissler 
in  the  collation  and  sifting  of  the  literature  bearing  upon  this  test. 

-For  more  extended  discussion  of  the  historical  development  of  the  sev- 
eral experimental  methods,  together  with  accounts  of  the  results  that  have 
been  attained,  the  reader  should  consult  Bentley,  Binet  (9),  Burnham. 
Ebbinghaus,  Gamble.  Henri,  Offner  and  Pohlmann.  The  last-named  gives 
a  particularly  valuable  summary  of  (be  methods. 


TEST  38:  MEMORY  FOB  SERIAL  IMPRESSIONS     [517]     L51 

CLASSIFICATION  OF  METHODS  FOB   MEMOBY  TESTS 

( 1 )  The  method  of  comph  te  memorization,  or  method  of  complete  mas- 
tery (Erlernungsmethode) ,  developed  In  the  classic  work  of  Ebbinghaus 
1 1  eber  das  Gediichtnis)  in  1885,  and  refined  by  MUller  and  Schumann, 
demands  thai  8  repeal  the  Berles  of  Impressions  again  and  again  until  he 
can  reproduce  ;i  withoul  error,  without  hesitation,  and  with  certaintj  of 
correctness.  Efficiency  is  measured  by  the  number  of  presentations  re- 
quired for  ilii-  complete  learning. 

In  practise,  this  method  is  frequently  supplemented  by  testing  the 
number  of  presentations  of  the  same  series  thai  is  needed  to  relearn  it  al 
any  assigned  time  after  the  firsl  learning  (Ersparnisverfahren  or  Erspar- 
nismethodc  i.  iii  which  case  the  saving  In  number  of  repetitions  In  the  re- 
learning,  as  compared  with  the  learning,  measures  the  amount  of  reten- 
tion, or  the  degree  to  which  the  firsl  impression  lias  persisted. 

i -j  i  The  memory-span  method  {Methode  der  Geddchtnis-Spanne), 
Brsl  devised  by  Jacobs,  elaborated  by  Eberl  and  Meujnann,  and  extensi7ely 
used  in  England  and  America,  consists  In  the  determination  of  the  maxi- 
mal length  of  a  series  of  impressions  that  can  be  reproduced  with  a  given 
degree  of  accuracy  (usually  complete  accuracy)  after  a  given  number  of 
presentations  (usually,  though  no1  necessarily,  one  presentation).  Ordi- 
narily, E  begins  with  a  scries  thai  is  easily  within  S's  limit,  and  Increases 
the  length  of  the  series,  keeping  other  factors  constant,  until  errors 
appear. 

i .".  i  The  method  of  retained  members  {Methode  <i<  r  behaltenen 
Glieder),  first  so  designated  i>y  Ebblnghaus,  bul  more  carefully  studied 
by  Pohlmann,  consists  In  the  determination  of  the  degree  of  mastery  (pro- 
portion of  elements  correctly  reproduced)  of  a  series  of  a  given  length, 
after  a  given  number  of  repetitions.  The  method  is  somewhat  like  the 
span  method,  but  the  length  of  the  series  is  so  chosen  that  8  cannot  attain 
complete  mastery,  in  practise,  many  span  tests  actually  become  tests  of 
degree  of  mastery. 

<n  The  method  of  right  associates  (Treffcrmethode) ,  proposed  by 
.lost  and  developed  by  Miiller  and  Pilzecker,  consists  in  presenting  a 
series  (if  impressions  (typically,  nonsense  syllables  in  trochaic  rhythm), 
and  of  subsequently  testing  8's  ability  to  name  the  member  that  follows 
any  given  member.  Usually  the  accented  member  is  given,  and  8  tries  to 
designate  the  'right  associate'  for  it.  (When  his  time  of  response  is  meas- 
ured, the  method  is  known.  In  full,  as  the  Treffer-  und  Zeitmethode) .  Its 
special  value  is  to  afford  opportunity  for  analyzing  the  nature  of  the  asso 
dative  connections;  it  has  not  heen  proposed  as  a  test  of  efficiency, 

(5)  Tin'  method  of  prompting  (Methode  der  Hilfen),  somewhat  simi- 
larly, tests  the  nature  and  strength  of  the  Individual  associative  connec- 
tions in  the  series,  and  is  of  questionable  usefulness  t>n-  practical  testing. 
As  illustrated  in  the  work  of  Ephrussi,  the  method  consists  in  an  attempt 
by  8  to  reproduce  the  series  before  it  ins  heen  fully  learned,  and  in 
promptings  by  /.'  .-it  each  point  of  hesitation  or  error.  Efficiency  is  In- 
versely related  to  tin'  number  of  promptings  required. 

(6)  The  method  of  into  i  !<  rena  <>i  associations  Is  exemplified  In  Rerg- 
strOm's  study  of  card-sorting  (5).  Here  80  cards  are  sorted  by  E  Into  1<"> 
piles,  and  subsequently,  at  a  given  interval,  into  another  10  piles  differ- 
ently arranged.  The  second  sorting  is  slower  because  of  the  persistence 
of  associative  connections  developed  In  the  first  trial.  Analogous  tests  can 
be  fashioned  with  other  tone-  of  material,  as  has  been  suggested  in  the 
Substitution  Test. 


152    [518J  ASSOCIATION,    LEARNING    AND    MEMORY 

(7)  The  method  of  reconstruction,  used  by  Miinsterberg  and  Bighani 
with  colors,  and  by  Miss  Gamble  with  odors,  consists  in  presenting  a 
series  of  stimuli  in  a  definite  order,  and  then,  after  a  predetermined  in- 
terval, in  presenting  the  same  stimuli  in  chance  order.  »S'  attempts  to  re- 
arrange them  in  the  original  order. 

(8)  The  method  of  recognition  consists  in  the  presentation  of  a  lim- 
ited number  of  impressions,  which  are  subsequently  presented  again,  in 
conjunction  with  other  stimuli,  to  see  how  many  of  the  first  series  &  can 
recognize  in  the  second  series.  Examples  will  be  found  in  the  work  of 
Smith  and  of  Henri. 

(9)  The  method  of  identical  series,  as  employed  by  Reuther  is  a  modi- 
fication of  the  method  of  recognition,  in  which  the  original  series  is  always 
actually  presented  intact,  though,  of  course,  this  fact  is  concealed  from  >S'. 

(10)  The  method  of  continuous  lists  {Methode  des  fortlaufend.cn 
Xiederschrcibens  Oder  Aufzahlens),  employed  by  Kra?pelin,  is  identical 
with  'the  procedure  described  in  Test  33,  though  sometimes  S  is  required 
to  write  words  that  belong  to  specified  categories. 

ill)  The  method  of  chance  verbal  reactions  (Methode  dcr  zufalligen 
Wortreaciioncn),  well  illustrated  by  the  investigations  of  Aschaffenburg 
and  G.  E.  Miiller,  is  the  stock  association  experiment,  with  emphasis  upon 
the  qualitative  as  well  as  the  quantitative  study  of  the  associative  se- 
quences.    (See  Test  33A.) 

(12)  The  method  of  description  or  report  (Aussaye)  is  a  form  of 
memory  investigation  with  peculiar  problems  of  its  own,  as  has  been 
shown  in  Test  32.  In  it,  the  terms  in  which  the  reproduction  takes  place 
are  not  restricted  to  a  direct  equivalence  with  the  material  presented,  but 
are  merely  indicative  or  descriptive  of  this  material. 

The  tests  which  follow  are  primarily  intended  to  test  capacity 
for  immediate  reproduction  after  a  single  presentation,  either 
by  the  memory-span  method  or  by  the  method  of  retained  mem- 
bers (degree  of  mastery).  The  capacity  which  is  tested  corre- 
sponds to  what  the  Germans  call  Merkfahigkeit — a  term  which 
is  perhaps  best  rendered  in  ISnglish  as  immediate  memory. 
Tests  of  capacity  to  recall  or  to  recognize  after  an  interval 
of  greater  or  less  duration  would  doubtless  more  nearly  meas- 
ure memory  in  the  more  exact  sense  of  that  term,  but,  unfortu- 
nately, little  attention  has  been  paid  to  this  phase  of  mental 
testing,  owing  presumably  to  the  desire  to  complete  observa- 
tions in  a  single  sitting. 

CLASSIFICATION    OF    xUATERIAL   FOR   MEMORY    TESTS 

The  material  used  in  tests  of  serial  memory  may  be  classed 
according  to  the  sense-department  to  which  it  is  presented 
(visual,  auditory,  visual-auditory,  etc.),  and  according  to  its 


TEST  38:  MEMORY  FOB  BERIAL  IMPRESSIONS     [~>W\    L53 

nature  or  form.    Again,  visual  material  of  different  forma  max 
be  presented  either  simultaneously  or  successively. 

(l)  Actual  object*  were  used  by  Netschajeff,  Lobslen  and  Kirkpatrick. 
Tims.  Lobslen  showed  9  objects  al  the  rate  of  l  per  Bee,  e.  <>..  aewspapi  r, 
key,  handkerchief,  glass,  slate,  box,  book,  glove,  chalk.  Netschajeff  used 
12,  Klrkpatrick  10  objects. 

ii't  Pictures  of  objects,  10  la  Dumber,  were  used  by  Miss  Calkins; 
groups  of  20  pictures  by  Mrs.  Squire  and  by  Carpenter,  following  the  Bug 
gestiou  of  the  earlier  Bluet-Simon  tests. 

(3)  Sentences  also  form  a  portion  of  the  Binet-Simon  tests,  and  have 
been  tried  by  Bitter,  .Miss  Sharp,  Mrs.  Squire,  Carpenter  and  Abelson. 
Directions  for  their  use  will  be  found  below. 

(4)  Words  may  be  used  in  the  inosl  varied  kinds  of  Beries.  Thus, 
series  of  Latin-German,  or  English-German,  or  other  pairs  of  nouns,  have 
been  used  to  produce  a  'vocabulary'  form  of  test,  .-is  by  Wessely.  A  dis- 
tinction may  be  made  between  'related'  or  'associable'  terms  and  'unre- 
lated' or  'dissociable'  terms  (Norsworthy:  Bergstrom,  6).  For  example, 
paper,  writing,  compose,  etc.,  vs.  horse,  bricks,  soldier,  acorns,  etc.  Men 
inann  <.">l>.  Burt  (l«'>i  and  Pyle  have  compared  the  span  ('■'<  to  8-term 
series  i  for  concrete  nouns,  e.  .</..  stove,  ink,  lamp,  street,  etc.,  with  the 
span  for  abstract  nouns,  e.  </..  influence,  etc.  Netschajeff  and  Lobslen 
tested  the  relative  reproducibility  of  words  (12  and  9-term  Beries)  that 
connoted  visual,  auditory,  tactual  and  emotional  Ideas,  respectively.  (Ex 
amples:  lightning,  dial,  sunbeam;  thunder,  crash,  whistle;  cold,  soft, 
smooth;  hope,  doubt,  regret.)  Kirkpatrick  and  Calkins  also  used  lO-term 
series  of  words  that  related  to  objects,  as  did  Pohlmann.  Hawkins  com- 
pared simultaneous  and  successive  exposure  of  15  nouns.  Binet,  Hitter. 
Simpson.  Abelson,  Lapie  and  Sharp  also  employed  lists  of  words  of  varied 
length  and  complexity. 

(5)  Nonsense  syllables  were  tried  but  discarded  by  Jacobs,  likewise 
by  Colin  and  Dieffenbacher.  They  formed,  however,  the  Btock  material 
in  Ebbiughaus'  pioneer  work,  and  were  subsequently  made  more  service- 
able by  the  precise  rules  thai  M filler  and  Schumann  formulated  for  their 
construction.  Bergstrom,  Burt,  Smith.  Midler  and  Pilzecker,  Pohlmann, 
van  Biervliet,  and  others  have  found  them  of  value:  indeed,  Pohlmann 
contends  that,  on  account  of  their  equivalence  one  to  another  and  their 
relative  freedom  from  varying  associations  in  different  N's.  nonsense  sylla- 
bles Corn;  the  best  and  mosl  reliable  material  for  memory  tests.  Series 
specially  adapted  for  English  readers  will  be  found  in  Test  -~>. 

(6)  Letters  (usually  consonants  only,  to  avoid  the  formation  of  sylla- 
bles or  words)  have  been  used  by  Jacobs,  Binei  (8),  Cobn,  Pohlmann. 
Sharp,  Finzi,  Smith  (71,  73),  and  winch  (80).  An  idea  of  the  great 
variety  Of  procedure  thai  may  he  developed  with  a  Single  form  of  material 
may  be  gained  by  noting  thai  Binei  used  15  consonants  exposed  visually 
and  simultaneously,  for  20  sec;  Cohn  exposed  12  consonants  arranged  in 
the  form  of  a  square  for  25  see.;  Pohlmann  read  10  consonants  to  his  n's 
3  times  over:  Sharp  exposed  12  letters  successively  with  the  Jastrow 
drop-apparatus,  at  the  rate  of  1  per  sec.  and  repeated  until  the  series  was 
learned  :  Smith  exposed  v_!  consonants  simultaneously  for  10  sec.  and  read 
oi  her  series  of  i.  .">.  6,  7.  and  9-term  consonants;  Winch  repeated  12  conso* 
mints  auditorily  in  25  sec.,  and  also  used  the  letter-square  method  (de- 
scribed below),  'is  did  Wvatt  and   Anderson, 


154    [520]         ASSOCIATION;    LEARNING   AND    MEMORY 

(7)  Two-place  numbers,  administered  orally,  were  used  by  Schuyten 
(8  numbers  repeated  by  tf's  in  concert).  Lobsien  (9  numbers),  Pohlmann 
(10  numbers  given  tbree  times),  and  Netschajeff  (12  numbers). 

(8)  Digits,3  i.  e.,  one-place  numbers,  Have  been  employed  by  Jacobs, 
Johnson,  Bolton,  Biuet,  Ebbingliaus,  Hawkins,  Ritter,  Chambers,  Kohnky, 
Lai  lie.  Sharp.  Smedley,  Krueger  and  Spearman.  Wissler,  and  many  others, 
in  the  most  varied  manner  (4  to  10-place  series,  given  auditorily,  visually 
— either  simultaneously  or  successively — or  in  combined  appeal  to  vision 
and  audition,  to  vision,  audition  and  'hand'  memory,  or  to  vision,  audition. 
and  'articulatory'  memory).  Abelson  appears  to  he  the  only  investigator 
to  have  discarded  digits  as  inappropriate  for  mental  tests. 

(9)  Geometrical  drawings  have  been  used  by  Munsterberg  and  Big- 
ham,  and  by  Bernstein  and  Bogdanoff,  who  selected  forms  that  would  be 
unfamiliar  to  their  &"s. 

(10)  Lines  of  varied  lengths  have  been  employed  by  Toulouse  and  by 
Binet  (9). 

(11)  Miscellaneous  visual  characters,  symbols,  combinations  of  dots, 
lines,  etc..  formed  a  portion  of  the  material  in  the  investigation  of  Ebert 
and  Meumann. 

(12)  Sounds,  such  as  those  produced  by  tearing  paper,  whistling, 
stamping,  ringing  a  bell,  etc.  were  arranged  in  9-element  series  by  Lob- 
sien, and  in  12-element  series  by  Netschajeff. 

(13)  Memory  for  com  missions  forms  a  well-known  part  of  the  Binct- 
Simon  tests.  An  extension  of  this  idea  into  a  sort  of  memory-span  test 
of  memory  for  commissions  has  been  used  by  Abelson  in  the  study  of  back- 
ward children. 

Aside  from  these  wide  differences  in  general  method  and  in  form  of  ma- 
terial, attention  should  he  called  to  differences  in  rate  or  tempo  at  which 
the  series  is  first  presented,  to  differences  in  the  number  of  times  the  series 
is  presented,  and  to  differences  in  the  time-interval  elapsing  between 
presentation  and  reproduction. 

As  a  rule,  the  rate  of  presentation  has  been  not  slower  than  1  impres- 
sion in  2  sec.  and  not  faster  than  2  impressions  in  1  sec  A  rate  ot  1  im- 
pression in  0.75  sec  has  been  found  well  adapted  for  adults. 

The  typical  span  test  is  one  in  which  the  series  is  presented  but  once: 
from  the  point  of  view  of  functional  testing,  therefore,  the  repetition  of 
the  stimulus  series  may  be  regarded  as  a  variant  method,  not  to  be  intro- 
duced save  Tor  the  special  purpose  of  studying  its  effect. 

Similarly,  as  has  already  been  said,  the  greater  portion  of  the  tests  here 
reported  have  been  made  with  no  interval  between  presentation  and  repro- 
duction. It  is  to  be  noted,  however,  that  Smedley,  in  his  tests  of  Chicago 
school  children,  separated  presentation  and  reproduction  by  an  interval 
of  5  sec.    Wyatt  caused  his  »S"s  to  count  backward  from  20  before  writing 


"Reuther  has  formulated  rules  for  the  construction  of  test-series  of 
digits,  analogous  to  Ihe  rules  of  Miiller  and  Schumann  for  test-series  of 
nonsense  syllables.  The  following  are  the  most  important  of  Reuther's 
principles:  (1)  Do  not  repeat  a  d'^it  in  the  same  series  (impossible  to 
avoid,  of  course,  in  10-place  series).  (2)  Do  not  begin  a  series  with  the 
number  1.  (3)  Avoid  the  use  of  zero.  (4)  Do  not  place  any  two  digits 
in  their  natural  relations  with  one  another.  (5)  Do  not  use  sequences 
that  suggest  historical  dates.  ((;)  Do  not  use  in  immediate  succession 
two  series  that  have  the  same  digit  in  the  same  place  at  any  point  in  the 
series. 


TE8T  38  :  MEMOB?   POR  SERIAL  IMPRESSIONS     [521]    13T. 

uonsense  syllables  and  Introduced  an  Interval  of  5  sec.  In  bis  testa  with 
letter-squares.  Klrkpa trick,  and  Calkins  In  ber  repetition  oJ  bis  tests, 
secured  a  reproduction  both  Immediately  after,  and  3  days  after  the  pre- 
sentation, In  order  lo  contrasl  'immediate'  w  nil  'delayed'  memory  or  recall. 

Somewhat   similarly,    I'.iiiet.   and   Sharp    in   her   repetition   Of   hi-    tests,   Be- 

■  in'. 'd  a  reproduction  <>f  each  of  seven  7  place  word-lists  directly  after  its 
presentation,  ami  a  'recapitulation,'  in  s<>  far  as  it  was  possible,  of  the  i'.i 
terms  at  the  close  of  the  whole  test,  i.  i ..  aboul  3  min.  after  the  tirst  presen- 
tation. Binel  contrasts,  In  this  way.  Immediate  memory  with  what  be 
terms  'memory  of  conservation.' 

Since,  as  I  he  results  that  follow  show,  even  minor  variations  in  the  oon- 
duct  of  a  memory  test  affect  Its  outcome,  it  follows  that  the  results  of  dif- 
ferent investigators  may  not  he  expected  to  exhibit  complete  accordance 
with  respect  to  the  relative  influence  of  sex,  age,  mental  ability,  etc. 

Five  chief  forms  of  test  have  been  selected  and  are  recom- 
mended as  standard  for  this  field  of  investigation;  variant 
methods  arc  suggested  in  each  case.  By  reference  to  the  classi- 
fication of  met  hods  and  materials  just  given,  /•>'  can  devise  fur- 
ther modifications  1<>  suit  special  requirements.  These  five 
forms  are  (1)  tests  with  digits,  resembling  in  scope  Smed- 
ley's  Chicago  tests,  hut  with  several  differences  in  procedure, 
i  -  i  tests  with  letters,  after  Cohn's  method,  (3)  tests  with  lists 
of  words,  after  the  methods  of  Meumann  and  of  Burt,  (4)  tests 
with  sentences  of  graded  difficulty,  and  (5)  nsts  with  pictures 

of  objects. 

A.       MEMORY    SPAN   foil  DIGITS 

Materials. — Printed  test-cards,  4l'  in  number,  arranged  in 
three  sets  of  14  cards  each,  for  presentation  by  •'!  different 
methods.  (Each  set  contains  2  cards  each  of  1.  .~>.  6,  7.  8,  '». 
and  10  digits.)  Metronome.  [For  serial  visual  exposure,  in 
addition.  .Inst row's  memory  apparatus  (Fig.  70).  Cardboard. 
Willson's  gummed  figures,  black.  Size  5.  For  letter  lests.  full 
sets  of  gummed  letters.  Sizes  ."»  and  10.] 

Preliminaries. — On  the  bach  of  each  card  write  the  digits 
thai  are  printed  on  its  face:  this  enables  /.'.  when  the  test  de- 
mands it.  to  pronounce  the  test  numbers  while  displaying  the 
card  to  8.  The  purely  auditory  and  the  audiiory  \  isiial  hand- 
motor  series  are  not  included  in  the  printed  cards,  but  should 
be  prepared  by  /.'.  preferably,  for  convenience,  ou  a  single  piece 
of  cardboard,  the  size  of  the  printed  cards.  For  the  auditor) 
series,  use  ihe  following  numbers,  in   the  order  given:  6135, 


156    [522]         ASSOCIATION,    LEARNING   AND    MEMORY 

2947,  36814,  57296,  241637,  935816,  8537142,  9412837,  47293815, 
71S36245,  924738615,  475296318,  8697132504,  2146073859.  For 
the  visual-auditory-hand-motor  series,  use  these  numbers,  re- 
versed, e.  g.,  5316,  etc. 

Method. — If  only  a  single  test  can  be  made,  employ  the 
visual-auditory-articulatory  form  of  presentation,  since  this  is 
most  likely  to  produce  uniform  conditions  of  ideational  imagery 
for  all  8'a.  But  if  the  tests  can  be  taken  in  full,  follow  the 
order  of  presentation  outlined  herewith.4  In  any  event,  preface 
each  form  of  presentation  with  a  special,  short  sample-series, 
without  demanding  reproduction,  in  order  that  8  may  be  per- 
fectly clear  as  to  the  nature  of  the  test.  Within  each  form  of 
test,  also,  preface  each  presentation  with  a  statement  of  the 
number  of  members  in  the  coming  series,  e.  g.:  "This  will  be  a 
series  of  5  digits."  The  metronome  should  be  set  at  60,  i.  c. 
one  stroke  per  sec,  for  all  tests.5 

(1)  Auditory  -presentation.  Explain  the  test  by  a  simple 
illustrative  series.  Require  8  to  close  his  lips  firmly,  and  to 
press  his  tongue  against  the  roof  of  his  mouth — this  to  reduce 
the  tendency  to  articulation,  and  in  group  tests  (all  of  the 
memory  tests  lend  themselves  well  to  group  presentation)  to 
avert  communication  between  S's.  Start  the  metronome.0  Pro- 
nounce the  digits,  one  at  a  time,  with  the  utmost  care  to  ensure 


4It  goes  without  explanation  that  the  longer  series  may  be  omitted  with 
very  young,  the  shorter  with  mature  S's.  Use,  for  the  shortest  series,  one 
that  is  easily  within  the  span  of  the  poorest  S  to  be  tested,  for  the  longest 
series,  one  that  is  too  difficult  for  the  best  8  to  reproduce  without  error. 

5It  may  be  well  at  this  place  to  point  out  the  differences  between  this 
procedure  and  that  followed  by  Smedley  at  Chicago.  Smedley  used  no 
series  longer  than  S.  He  gave  no  warning  of  the  length  of  the  coming 
series.  He  set  the  metronome  at  90.  He  did  not  present  the  several  series 
in  regular  order,  but  irregularly,  though  beginning  with  an  easy  series. 
He  inserted  an  interval  of  5  sec.  between  presentation  and  reproduction. 
He  distributed  his  tests,  seven  in  all.  at  hourly  intervals.  Finally,  he 
gives  no  clear  statement  of  his  method  of  computing  results,  save  that 
the  "percentage  correctly  recorded  constituted  the  grade." 

"If  he  finds  it  necessary,  E  may  substitute  a  silent  metronome,  made  by 
swinging  a  small  weight  on  a  string,  but  the  fact  that  the  regular  metro- 
nome is  somewhat  noisy  should  not  be  taken  as  evidence  that  it  disturbs 
S;  on  the  contrary,  a  noise  of  moderate  intensity  is  not  infrequently 
found  to  be  a  stimulus  to  better  attention.  Moreover,  the  ticking  metro- 
nome is  much  more  serviceable  when  8  is  asked  to  pronounce  the  digits 
in  conjunction  with  E,  and  it  probably  operates  to  some  extent  to  break 
np  tendencies  to  learn  the  digits  by  grouping. 


UBSI  88  .' MBM0BY  FOR  8EBIAL  lUPSJESSIONS     [o2'^[    luT 

even  tempo,  clear  articulation,  and  entire  absence  of  rhythm.1 
Directly  at  the  conclusion  of  the  series,  let  8  repeal  as  much 
as  possible  of  it.  Although,  under  some  circumstances  (with 
very  young  or  backward  S's),  an  oral  reproduction  may  be  im- 
perative, a  written  reproduction  should  be  considered  stand- 
ard, both  because  the  proper  placing  of  the  digits  furnishes  I 
with  data  for  scoring  S's  performance  (and  the  placing  musl 
indicate  possible  omissions),  and  because  experiment  shows 
that,  at  least  for  maturer  S's,  written  reproduction  is  pre 
ferred,  and  is  more  successful  than  oral  reproduction.  S's  re- 
call should,  therefore,  be  entered  upon  a  prepared  blank,  with 
the  caution  to  indicate  every  omission  by  a  dash  or  a  blank 
space.8 

(2)  Visual  presentation.  Use  Cards  Y-la.  V  lb,  etc.,  to 
V-lOb.  Follow  the  directions  for  auditory  presentation,  bu1 
in  place  of  pronunciation,  exhibit  the  entire  card  for  a  length 
of  time  identical  with  that  for  auditory  presentation,  i.  < ..  with 
an  allowance  of  1  sec.  per  digit.  The  metronome  should  be 
used  here,  as  in  all  phases  of  this  test,  in  order  to  keep  the  eon 
ditions  of  presentation  comparable.  It  probably  also  tends  to 
induce  S's  to  apprehend  the  digits  successively  and  in  the  same 
tempo  as  that  used  for  auditory  presentation.  Note  to  what 
extent  S  articulates  the  digits:  even  with  lips  and  tongue 
placed  as  directed,  they  will  often  be  seen  to  move,  and  con- 
tractions of  throat  muscles  may  also  indicate  partial  articu- 
lation. 


The  difficulty  of  speaking  without  accent,  or  without  grouping  the 
digits,  lias  led  Binet  to  reject  oral,  in  favor  of  visual  presentation. 
If  E  pronounces  without  accent  or  rhythm,  there  is  no  guarantee  that  8 
may  not  mentally  cast  the  digits  Into  a  strongly  accented  and  grouped 
series.  an<l,  in  fact,  mature  S's,  working  with  the  longer  series,  are  almost 
certain  to  catch  this  'trick'  In  time.  Ritter  advocates  that  E  should  give 
,i  decided  objective  rhythm  to  every  scries  on  just  (his  accounl ;  this  factor 
will  then  form  a  constant,  rather  than  a  variable  'error.'  One  difficulty 
with  this  plan  lies  in  the  fact  that,  in  using  scries  of  varying  lengths,  it 
is  impossible  to  use  any  constant  metrical  phrasing. 

8For  group  work-,  the  class  should  he  provided  with  blank  form 
numbered  and  arranged  that  no  misunderstandings  may  occur  on  the  part 
of  S  in  entering  the  data,  or  on  the  part  of  /:  in  interpreting  it.  Allow 
ample  time  for  writing.  Xetschajeff,  I'ohlmann  and  Sclmyten  all  found  2' 
niin.  desirahle  in  classroom  tests.  In  group  tests,  care  must  be  taken  to 
prevent  audible  repetition  of  the  digits  during  the  reproduction. 


158    [524]         ASSOCIATION,    LEARNING   AND    SIKMOEV 

(3)  Auditory-visual  presentation.  E  presents  the  cards,  as  in 
the  purely  visual  procedure,  but  also  pronounces  the  digits, 
as  in  the  auditory  procedure,  by  reading  them  from  the  back 
of  the  card.  8  sees  and  hears  the  digits.  Cards  AV-4a  to 
AV-lOb  are  used. 

(4)  Auditory-visual-articulatory  presentation.  E  presents 
the  cards  as  in  (2).  E  and  8  pronounce  them  in  concert,  in 
time  with  the  metronome.  8  sees,  hears,  and  pronounces  the 
digits.    Cards  AVA-4a  to  AVA-lOb  are  used. 

(5)  Auditory-visual-hand-motor  presentation.  E  pronounces 
the  digits  as  in  (1)  :  8  writes  them,  as  fast  as  pronounced  by  E, 
upon  scrap  paper :  when  the  series  is  finished,  8  at  once  discards 
the  scrap  paper,  and  reproduces  the  series.  8  hears,  sees,  and 
writes  the  digits.  Use  the  same  numbers  as  in  (1),  but  reverse 
the  order  of  the  digits.  In  this  test,  it  will  ordinarily  be  neces- 
sary to  devote  one  or  two  preliminary  trials  to  fore-exercise. 

Variations  op  Method. —  (1)  Meet  the  bothersome  tendency 
toward  grouping  and  rhythmizing — bothersome  because  ex- 
hibited by  some  flf's  and  not  by  others— by  presenting  the  digits 
in  trochaic  rhythm :  this  device  is  perhaps  favored  by  selecting 
series  of  4,  G,  S,  and  10  digits  only. 

(2)  Introduce  a  time-interval  between  presentation  and  re- 
production. If  this  interval  is  short,  it  may  with  advantage 
be  occupied  with  some  form  of  distraction,  like  saying  the 
alphabet  in  concert,  since  the  effect  will  be  more  like  that  of 
a  much  longer  'empty'  interval.  The  disadvantage  of  an  un- 
occupied interval  is  that  some  S's  will  mentally  rehearse  the 
series  just  presented. 

(3)  Substitute  successive  for  simultaneous  visual  presenta- 
tion in  Forms  2,  3,  and  4.  For  this  purpose,  E  must  prepare 
cards  for  insertion  in  the  Jastrow  memory  apparatus,9  so  that 

■Jastrow's  instrument  is  adequate  if  E  is  careful  to  make  the  exposures 
regularly,  in  time  with  the  metronome ;  it  is  especially  useful  for  group 
tests.  If  E  desires  a  more  accurate  exposure  apparatus,  for  individual 
tests,  he  may  employ  the  Ranschburg  memory-apparatus  (now  improved 
by  Wirth),  kuhlmann's  memory-apparatus,  Bergstrom's  rather  elaborate 
exposure  apparatus,  or  G.  E.  Midler's  modification  of  the  kymograph  for 
'step-fashion'  exposure,  as  described,  in  improved  form,  by  McDougall. 
Burt,  however,  contends  that  the  distraction  produced  in  immature  and 
inexperienced  Sf's  by  the  sight  of  unfamiliar  apparatus  more  than  counter- 
balances the  advantage  of  greater  precision,  mechanical  regulation  of  rate 


'i  i:si  .'is  :  m  i ; m « •  i ; \  iroit  seuial  impuessions    [525]   L59 


— "t*t—i - 

ill     1 1  PA !  L  A  RCH I 

m 


FIG.  70. — JASTBOW'S    MEMORY    AlTVKAlt  S. 

the  numbers  used  in  Forms  2,  :'>.  and  4  (above)  may  now  be 
exposed  in  vertical  columns.  In  order  to  secure  sufficiently 
long  series,  the  exposure-lever  of  the  instrument  is  so  inserted 


and  duration  of  exposure,  etc.;  lie  used,  Cor  successive  exposure,  a  Blotted 
piece  el'  cardboard,  which  was  shoved  along  the  column  of  impressions  by 
/•:  (apparently  at  no  uniform  or  constant  rate,  but  as  fast  as  proved  con- 
venient to  S  i . 

Kulilinan  arranges  to  have  each  exposure  followed  by  a  blanK  section 
of  perhaps  a  different  duration  from  that  of  the  exposure.  The  idea  is 
to  control  the  amount  of  time  that  8  can  spend  in  re  imaging  or  recalling 
the  impression  just  received.  According  to  Kuhhnann,  N's  use  from  one- 
half  to  two-thirds  of  the  total  time  at  their  command  in  ordinary  presenta- 
tions of  material  for  memory  tests  (whether  simultaneous  or  successive) 
in  this  process  of  re-imaging.  The  importance  of  the  process,  he  thinks, 
varies  much  with  individuals. 


160    [526J         ASSOCIATION,    LEARNING   AND    MEMORY 

as  to  articulate  with  the  pegs  that  provide  a  drop  of  1  in.  at 
each  exposure.  Black  letters  %  in.  high  (Willson's,  Size  5) 
may  then  be  used.  These  are  visible  to  the  normal  eye  at  50 
ft.,  but  E  should  take  the  precaution,  in  classroom  tests,  to  seat 
myopic  S's  near  tbe  front  of  the  room. 

(4)  Test  the  effect,  upon  a  series  too  long  for  8  to  reproduce 
in  one  presentation,  of  two,  three,  or  more  presentations  in 
immediate  succession. 

(5)  Give  repeated  tests  by  the  same  method,  with  a  series  of 
a  given  length  (in  excess  of  #'s  span),  to  test  the  effect  of  prac- 
tise. 

(6)  Change  the  rate  of  exposure  from  one  impression  per 
sec.  to  one  impression  in  2  sec. 

(7)  Keeping  other  conditions  (form  of  presentation,  length 
of  series,  etc.)  constant,  compare  &'s  efficiency  under  normal 
conditions  with  that  under  different  forms  of  distraction. 
Smith  (71)  used  for  this  purpose  three  different  concomitant 
activities:  his  $'s  were  required  during  the  presentation  (a) 
to  tap  in  time  with  the  beat  of  a  metronome,  (6)  to  repeat  the 
syllable  la,  or  (c)  to  add  mentally  by  2's  or  by  3's. 

(8)  Prepare  cards  with  letters10  in  place  of  digits,  for  use  by 
any  of  the  procedures  above  described.  Use  only  consonants. 
Avoid  alphabetical  sequences,  or  suggestions  of  words  or  abbre- 
viations. 

Treatment  of  Data. —  (1)  If  it  is  desired  only  to  determine 
K'8  memory  span,  sensu  stricto,  this  is  indicated  simply  by  the 
maximal  number  of  digits  that  can  be  reproduced  without  error 
of  any  kind. 

(2)  Tf,  as  is  more  usual  in  comparative  tests,  it  is  desired  to 
determine  the  degree  of  correctness  with  which  series  longer 
than  the  span  are  reproduced,  the  simplest  plan  is  to  assign 
arbitrary  scores  to  the  various  forms  of  error.  Ebbinghaus, 
for  example,  scored  every  omission  as  1  error,  every  displace- 
ment from  the  correct  position  in  the  series  by  2  or  3  places  as 
0.5  error,  and  every  displacement  by  4  or  more  places  as  1 


"Use  Willson's  black  gummed  letters,  Size  5,  for  the  Jastrow  appa- 
ratus, or  Size  10  to  duplicate  the  regular  printed  test-cards. 


II, .si  08  :  MF.MoUY  FOB  BBttlAL  IMPttESSIONH     [•>-« 


L61 


error,    fif's  should  then  he  compared  with  respect  to  their  error- 
score  in  series  of  each  length  separately. 

(3)  A  more  scientific  method  of  determining  efficiency  is  that 

of  compnting  the  degree  of  correlation  between  tl rder  of 

impressions  as  reproduced  by  8  and  their  order  as  presented. 
This  is  accomplished,  following  the  example  of  Krueger  and 
Bpearman,  by  applying  Spearman's  -foot rule'  formula  for  cor 
relation  (see  Ch.  Ill),  though,  in  this  connection,  it  is  better 
to  modify  this  formula  by  counting  the  sum  of  all  tin-  devia- 
tions between  the  two  scries,  rather  than  the  sum  of  all  the 
positive,  or  of  all  of  the  negative  deviations. 

For  treating  the  data  of  these  memory  tests,  therefore,  tin1 
formula  may  he  writ  ten  : 

%d 

R  =  1 

(ir-l)/3 

The  computation  of  2d  needs  a  little  explanation.  The  following  cases 
may  be  considered  :u 

(a)  '  Suppose  that  S  reproduces  all  the  terms  of  the  original  series, 
but  not  in  the  correct  order.  The  sum  of  the  deviations  is  then  easily 
computed.  In  Case  A,  Table  !">.  for  instance,  the  sum  of  the  deviations 
Is  •;,  and  since  M  =  10,  by  the  formula  just  given,  It  =  0.82. 

TABLE  00 

I  sr  of  the  'Footrule'  Method  in  Scoring  the  Memory  Test   (Spearman) 


"The  author  is  indebted  for  these  Illustrations  to  a  personal  communi- 
cation from  Professor  Spearman. 


1(52    [528]  ASSOCIATION.    LEARNING    AND    MEMORY 

(b)  Suppose,  Case  B,  that  certain  terms  have  been  omitted.  The 
deviations  of  the  terms  given  are  figured  as  before.  There  is  then  added 
the  amount  of  deviation  to  be  expected  for  the  omitted  terms,  on  the 
assumption  that  they  are  distributed  by  mere  chance.  The  chance  devia- 
tion for  each  term  is  (n2 — 1)  -f-  3n.  In  Case  B,  then,  there  are  three 
omitted  terms,  each  of  which  deviates  by  chance  3.3  places.  Hence,  the 
Case  C,  the  total  deviation  —  6  +  3.3  =  9.3. 

(c)  Suppose  that  S  reproduces  certain  terms  more  than  once,  e.  g., 
the  digit  2  in  Case  C.  In  this  case,  the  nearer  of  the  two  digits  is  con- 
sidered as  the  correct  one.  The  other,  or  duplicated,  term  should  be  re- 
garded as  an  omission,  and  treated  by  the  formula  just  given.  Thus,  in 
Case  C,  the  total  deviation  =  G  -f-  3.3  =  9.3. 

(d)  Suppose  that  more  than  the  correct  number  of  terms  are  repro- 
duced: here  the  superfluous  numbers  may  be  ignored,  since,  save  in 
exceptional  cases,  they  bring  about  their  own  penalty  by  disturbing  the 
correspondence  of  order. 

B.       THE    METHOD   OP   LETTER   SQUARES 

The  idea  of  displaying  simultaneously  a  series  of  consonants 
in  a  simple  spatial  pattern  appears  first  to  have  been  sug- 
gested by  Binet  and  Henri  (11)  :  the  method  was  extended  by 
(John,  who  used  it  to  compare  the  relative  values,  for  a  given  S, 
of  visual  and  of  auditory-motor  learning;  and  it  has  since  been 
frequently  used  with  modifications  (see,  for  example,  Titchener, 
77,  396  ff.)  as  a  method  of  studying  ideational  types.  Winch 
used  the  method  to  compare  immediate  with  delayed  reproduc- 
tion, Smith  to  compare  various  forms  of  distraction,  Anderson 
and  Winch  to  note  the  relation  to  sex  and  age,  Wyatt  to  com- 
pare with  school  standing. 

Materials. — A  set  of  10  printed  test-cards.  Prepared  forms 
upon  which  the  reproduction  is  entered.  Stop-watch.  [The 
letter-square  cards  are  printed  in  large  type  to  make  the  test 
available  for  group  procedure.  The  arrangements  avoid,  so 
far  as  can  be  foreseen,  the  use  of  collocations  that  might  serve 
as  aids  to  memory.  Only  consonants  are  used.  The  blank  forms 
are  ruled  in  sets  of  12  squares.] 

Method.- — Explain  to  8  the  general  nature  of  the  test.  In- 
form him  of  the  duration  of  exposure,  but  give  him  no  direc- 
tions as  to  how  he  shall  attempt  to  learn  the  arrangement  of  the 
letters.  Expose  the  stimulus  card  for  25  sec.  Let  him  fill  out 
the  blank  form  immediately  after  the  exposure.  Allow  80  sec. 
for  writing.  Repeat  with  other  cards,  until  4  to  10  trials  have 
been  made. 


TEST  38  .*  MEMORY   FOB  SERIAL  IMPRESSIONS     [529]    103 

Variations  of  Method. —  (1)  Defer  the  reproduction  for  20 
sec.  (or  10  sec.  to  follow  Cohn)  after  the  exposure.  Direct  8 
to  count  aloud  during  this  interval,  from  l  to  20,  l  number  per 
sec,  in  time  with  E  i  who  may  follow  a  silent  metronome  swing- 
ing once  per  Bee.)-  The  objed  is  to  subdue  or  eliminate  the 
'memory  after-image,'  and  to  secure  true  recall  -in  the  strid 
sense  of  recalling  an  experience  which  had  not  been  just  pre- 
viously in  consciousness. 

(2)  Direct  S  to  read  the  letters  aloud,  twice  over,  in  concert 
w  iili  /■;.  a1  the  rate  of  1  letter  per  sec  Read  by  horizontal  lines. 
Reproduce  with  or  without  the  20  sec  interval. 

(3)  Direct  8  to  repeat  aloud,  continuously  and  rapidly,  dur- 
ing the  exposure,  the  syllable  'Ah.'  Reproduce  preferably  after 
the  20  sec  interval  filled  with  the  counting.  This  form  of  pro- 
cedure obviously  favors  the  visual  memory.  If  more  than  one 
trial  is  made,  use  other  syllables,  such  as  'La,'  'Oh/  etc,  to  avoid 
the  lapse  of  articulation  to  automatism. 

(4)  Direct  8  to  count  aloud  by  2's  during  the  exposure  (e.  .</.. 
2,  4,  G,  or  3,  5,  7,  etc.)  or  to  count  backwards  from  20. 

(5)  After  exposure  by  any  of  the  methods  just  outlined, 
point  to  one  square  after  another  of  the  blank  forms,  in  irregu- 
lar order,  asking  S  to  name  or  to  write  the  appropriate  letters 
as  rapidly  as  possible.  Or,  without  previous  warning,  ask  S 
to  fill  in  the  blank  squares  in  vertical  rows,  or  in  horizontal 
rows  from  right  to  left.  In  theory,  visual-minded  fif's  can  ac- 
complish this  without  effort,  whereas  purely  auditory-minded 
8' s  must  retrace  their  verbal  associations  to  find  the  necessary 
letters. 

Treatment  of  Data. —  (1)  Following  Winch,  assign  ."»  for 
each  letter  in  its  right  position,  2  for  each  letter  one  remove  to 
the  right,  or  left,  or  above,  or  below  its  right  position,  1  for 
each  letter  two  removes  to  the  right,  or  left,  or  above,  or  below." 


12This  method  of  Bcorlng  possibly  puts  somewhat  too  mucb  stress  upon 
right  position;  ;it  least,  in  cases  like  the  letter  r.  in  the  specimen  it  may 
be  felt  that  it  should  not  go  withont  credll  because  it  is  both  in  the  wrong 
row  and  in  the  wrong  column.    However,  the  method  above  described  is 

the  one  thai  has  been  followed  by  all  who  have  worked  with  letter-squares 
as  a  mental  test. 


U»4    [53UJ  ASSOCIATION^    LEARNING    AND    MEMORY 


Specimen  of  test  given 

M  T  D  X 

V  L  Y  N 

S  Z  B  R 


Specimen  of  a  marked  paper 


M(3) 
L(2) 
Z(2) 

Score: 


T(3) 
V(2) 
B(2) 


L(0) 
Y(3) 
S(l) 


R(l) 

Ni3) 
X(l) 


23  out  of  a  possible  30. 


(2)  If  S  be  competent  to  render  introspective  accounts  of 
the  manner  in  which  each  letter  was  recalled  and  placed,  E 
may,  for  qualitative  purposes,  compute  separately  the  score 
for  letters  recalled  visually,  auditorily,  or  in  other  ways. 

C.      MEMORY  FOR  CONCRETE  AND  FOR  ABSTRACT  WORDS 

The  essential  idea  of  this  test  of  memory,  as  devised  by  Meu 
mann,  and  followed,  with  some  modifications,  by  Burt  and  by 
Pyle,  is  to  compare  >SY,s  reproduction  of  a  list  of  concrete,  with 
his  reproduction  of  a  list  of  abstract  terms,  given  under  identi- 
cal conditions.  The  comparison  is  based  not  only  upon  the 
simple  quantitative  efficiency  in  the  two  forms  of  test,  but  also, 
and  more  particularly,  upon  the  qualitative  analysis  of  the 
errors  in  the  reproduced  lists.  Moreover,  the  test  aims  to  de- 
termine not  only  /S"s  capacity  for  immediate  memory,  but  also 
his  degree  of  intelligence,  or  grade  of  mental  development. 
The  test  rests  in  principle  upon  two  propositions;  first,  that 
words  whose  meaning  is  understood  are  more  easily  retained 
and  reproduced  than  words  whose  meaning  is  not  understood; 
secondly,  that  progressive  mental  development  implies  pro- 
gressive comprehension  of  abstract  words. 

Material. — For  auditory  presentation,  use  the  following- 
lists.  For  visual-auditory  presentation,  use  the  same  lists 
printed  upon  sheets  of  cardboard  with  Willson's  gummed  let- 
ters. For  visual  presentation,  serial  exposure  with  the  aid  of 
the  Jastrow  or  other  exposure  apparatus  is  recommended. 


Three-term,  lists 
Concrete       Abstract 


Four-term  lists 
Concrete       Abstract 


Five-term  lists 
Concrete     Abstract 


Street 

Time 

Spoon 

Phase 

Ground 

Tact 

Ink 

Art 

Horse 

Work 

Pen 

Scope 

Lamp 

Route 

Chair 

Truth 

Clock 

Proof 

Stone 

Thing 

Boy 
Chalk 

Scheme 
Form 

TEST  38  :~MEMOBY  FOB  SERIAL  IMPRESSIONS     [531]     L65 


Six- 

term  lists 

\erm  \ 

Eight 

■term  lists 

Concrete 

Abstract 

Com 

Abstract 

Abstract 

Desk 

Space 

Ball 

Craft 

Coal 

Law 

Milk 

Creed 

Sponge 

Myth 

Girl 

Thought 

Hand 

Pride 

Glass 

Rate 

i  lonse 

Plot 

Card 

Guile 

Hat 

<  !anse 

Salt 

Glee 

Floor 

Pledge 

Fort 

Style 

Glove 

Life 

•  '.-it 

Cue 

Sto 

Youth 

Watch 

Rhythm 

Post 

Mood 

Box 

Mai 

Faith 
Mirth 

The  above  lists  are  prepared  with  the  idea  of  confining  the 
abstrad  terms  to  words  of  one  syllable,  as  done  by  Burl  and  by 
I'\  le  (whose  lists  are  quite  similar  to  the  above).  This  restric- 
tion materially  lessens  the  difference  in  difficulty  between  the 
concrete  and  abstrad  lists.  To  duplicate  Meumann's  condi- 
tions the  following  abstract  lists  may  be  substituted  for  those 
given  a  hove: 


Four-term  list 
Selection 

Analysis 

Explanation 
( Ihnraeter 


Eiffht-term  list 

Bebm  lor 

Tendency 

Interpretation 

i  iondltion 

Opinion 

Capacity 

Profession 

Connection 


Five-term  list 

Society 

Symbol 

Arrangement 

Humanity 

Theory 


Six-tt  I'm  list 

<  !onscience 

Investigation 

Symptom 

Formation 

( lomplexity 

Experiment 


St  r,  it-term  list 
Assumption 
Recognition 
<  Irigin 
Influence 
l  development 
( Organism 
Value 


Method. — For  "roup  tests,  follow  Meumann's  procedure. 
Explain  the  nature  of  the  test  and  give  a  sample  exercise.  Pro 
vide  each  8  with  blanks  so  arranged  that  his  reprodud ions  may 
be  properly  recorded,  the  lists  carefully  separated,  and  dashes 
inserted  for  all  words  omitted.  Make  clear  that  the  lists  arc 
to  preserve  the  order  of  presentation  so  far  as  possible.  Before 
each  presentation,  notify  the  Sfs  of  the  number  of  words  to  be 
spoken.  Enunciate  with  great  care,  and  without  grouping,  at 
the  rate  of  one  word  per  sec.     Instruct   the  Sf's  to  write  their 


166    [532]         ASSOCIATION,    LEARNING    AND    MEMORY 

lists  immediately  after  the  presentation,  and  as  rapidly  as  pos- 
sible, without  trying  to  'write  their  very  best.'  Guard  against 
interruption,  intercommunication,  or  other  possible  disturb- 
ances. Give  the  series  in  order,  as  above,  i.  e.,  3-term  concrete, 
3-term  abstract,  4-term  concrete,  etc.,  save  for  mature  8%  for 
whom  the  beginning  is  to  be  made  at  the  shortest  list  that  all 
can  accomplish,  and  for  whom  lists  of  more  than  8  terms  may 
be  arranged  by  combining  some  of  the  shorter  unused  lists. 

Variations  of  Method. — Consult  suggestions  for  the  memory 
span  for  digits  (Variations  of  Method,  2  to  7) . 

Treatment  of  Data. —  (1)  The  simplest  method  is  to  disre- 
gard the  question  of  order  and  simply  to  credit  8  one  for  each 
word  correctly  recalled.  This  scoring  was  used  by  Simpson 
with  lists  of  16  words,  but  is  not  recommended  by  him  on  ac- 
count of  its  failure  to  penalize  for  erroneous  insertions. 

(2)  Another  very  simple  device  is  that  adopted  by  Pyle  of 
crediting  one  for  each  word  correctly  reproduced,  plus  one 
more  for  each  word  placed  in  the  right  order.  It  is  evident  that 
this  scoring  is  not  specific  enough  to  deal  adequately  with  the 
various  possibilities  of  insertion,  substitution,  transposition, 
etc. 

(3)  Memory  for  words  may  be  scored  by  any  one  of  the  three 
methods  already  proposed  for  memory  span  (Treatment  of 
Data). 

(4)  The  second  method  proposed  for  the  memory  span  (arbi- 
trary scores  for  various  forms  of  error)  is  followed  in  principle 
by  Burt  in  his  special  system  of  scoring  memory  for  words: 
each  correct  word  correctly  placed  counts  4 ;  each  correct  word 
misplaced  by  one  move  counts  3 ;  each  correct  word  misplaced 
by  more  than  one  move  counts  2;  omissions  or  substitutions 
count  0.  Other  rules  which  he  followed  concern  words  with 
slight  alterations;  these,  in  the  author's  judgment,  are  not 
important  enough  to  justify  their  use  unless  nonsense  syllables 
are  used. 

(5)  A  very  elaborate  analysis  of  memory  for  words  was  em- 
ployed by  Memnann.  For  a  careful  scrutiny  of  the  performance 
in  this  test  E  may  prefer  to  adopt  such  a  method,  following  as 


TEST  38:  MEMOEY  FOB  SEEIAL  1MPKE8S10NB     [533]    107 

a  suggestive  pattern  the  schema  below,  which  has  been  trans- 
cribed from  Meumann  wiili  a  few  minor  modifications. 

ILLUSTRATION    01    THE  TBI   uviM    01    DATA    IN    MEMORY  FOB   WORDS 

siihjr  •/.-  Adolph  I..    Age,  8  years. 

'I'yi  ea  of  Error  Number 

1.  Memory  errors  (omissions  and  displacements)   concrete  lists.     5% 

2.  Memory  errors  (omissions  and  displacements),  abstracl  lists..     7~;; 
::.     Insertions *4 

I.  Insertions  of  nonsense  words 1 

5.  Fusions.  . J 

6.  Perseverations ■ 

7.  IJegressive   Inhibitions -* 

s.  Complete  reversals 

J).  Substitul  ion  of  synonyms ° 

10.  Substitution  of  concrete  for  abstracl 1 

11.  Wrong  formations f 

VI.  Misnndersl 1  abstracl  terms 

13.  Spelling v,'r-v  bad 

14.  Handwriting Undeveloped  and  ugly 

(1  t  and  (2)  Omissions  are  represented  by  the  integers,  /'.  <•..  Adolpb  L. 
omitted  five  words  fro)u  the  concrete  lists,  7  from  the  abstracl  (the  lesl 
was  carried  to  the  T-tt-rm  list  only).  Displacements  from  the  correct  order 
conn  I  ':;  error  when  tin-  displacemenl  is  by  one  remove  only.  %  error. 
when  more  than  "Mr  remove  (save  thai  with  younger  children,  as  in  the 
case  above,  all  displacements  counl  '.••..>  Hence  Adolph  I.,  made  2  dis- 
placements  in  the  concrete,  7  in  the  abstracl  series. 

(3)  Insertions  are  the  total  number  of  words  added.  These  are 
counted  as  1  error  each,  unless  the  added  word  lias  some  similarity  of 
sound  to  a  word  actually  presented,  in  which  case  it  counts  %  error. 

Mi  This  rubric  embraces  (he  relatively  Infrequenl  addition  of  a 
meaningless  word  thai   has  no  similarity  in  sound  or  Bpelling  to  any  of 

those  presented. 

(.".I  Injuns  of  two  or  more  totally  Independent,  successive  terms  Into 
a  single  meaningless  term  are  a  very  significant  form  of  error,  which 
appears  in  abslracl  lists  written  by  S's  of  poor  intelligence,  e.  g..  Organ 
and  (, nilu, hi  are  reproduced  as  Orgattung.  Mostly  found  in  children  8 
and  9  j ears  old. 

1 1,  i  Persevirations  are  indicated  by  Ha'  recording  by  S  in  a  given 
series  of  a  word  that  Had  already  been  reproduced  in  an  earlier  series.  If 
frequent,  this  is  a  sign  of  a  low  intelligence,  lack  of  self-control  and  of 
critical  judgment. 

i7)  Regressive  inhibitions.  1'aihire  to  reproduce  at  least  one-half  of 
the  terms  given  is.  as  a  rule,  to  he  interpreted  as  regressive  Inhibition. 
This  condition  i<  commonly  attributable  to  a  stale  of  confusion  into  which 
a  child  is  thrown,  when  he  is  suddenly  'overwhelmed'  by  the  task,  when 
everything  'flies  out   of  his  mind.'  he  'loses  his  wits.'  and  is  unable  t'> 

tnplisil  even  a   fraction  of  his  normal  performance.     The  same  thing 

is  seen  in  adults  under  conditions  which  are  difficnll  for  them,  since, 
Meumann  argues,  iliis  is  essentially  due  to  Inability  to  force  attention, 
lack  of  this  ability  i<  a  token  of  poor  general  ability,  and  hence  of  low 
intelligence.  Failure  due  to  absolute  lack  of  intent  to  succeed  must,  of 
course,  he  distinguished  from  the  lack  of  ability  to  Bucceed. 


108    [534]  ASSOCIATION.    LEARNING    AND    MEMORY 

(8)  Complete  reversal  of  word  order,  either  in  a  large  portion,  or  in 
the  whole  of  a  list  is  "a  peculiarly  puzzling  phenomenon."  There  are 
occasionally  met,  for  instance,  cases  in  which  a  series  of  8  words  are  all 
written  in  the  reverse  of  the  order  presented.13 

(9)  The  substitution  of  synonyms  refers  to  the  easily  intelligible  cases 
in  which  a  word  of  like  meaning,  but  different  sound,  replaces  the  word 
given,  e.  y.,  road  for  street. 

(10)  The  substitution  of  concrete  for  abstract  words  refers  to  the  use 
of  concrete  terms  of  similar  sound,  whether  of  similar  meaning  or  not. 
e.  g.,  cows  for  cause,  simple  for  symbol.  E  must  use  his  judgment  here  in 
making  allowances  for  faulty  spelling. 

(11)  Wrong  formations,  especially  the  use  of  wrong  endings,  consti- 
tuted a  prolific  source  of  error  in  the  German  tests,  particularly  with 
abstract  words,  e.  g.,  Glaubhcit  for  Glaube.  Errors  of  this  type  may  be 
expected  to  be  less  frequent  in  the  less  highly  inflected  and  compounded 
English  language,  but  occasional  instances  will  be  found,  e.  g.,  selectness 
for  selection. 

(12)  Misunderstood  abstract  terms  is  to  be  regarded  (as  the  author 
understands  it)  as  expressing  the  sum  total  of  misapprehended  abstract 
terms,  whether  the  misunderstanding  is  indicated  by  substitutions,  faulty 
endings,  fusions,  very  faulty  misspellings,  or  in  other  ways. 

(13)  Orthography  constitutes  a  secondary  symptom  of  intelligence. 
In  order  to  estimate  spelling  fairly,  papers  are  ranked  as  'poor'  in  spelling 
only  when  the  sum  of  misspelled  words  is  50  per  cent,  or  more  greater 
than  the  average  number  of  misspellings  for  »Sf's  class. 

(14)  Handwriting  constitutes  another  secondary  symptom  of  intelli- 
gence, and  is  merely  rated,  as  fairly  as  possible  by  comparison  of  numer- 
ous papers,  as  good,  average,  or  poor. 

I 

These  14  rubrics  are  filled  out  for  each  #.    For  the  estimation 

of  memory  capacity,  pure  and  simple,  Meumann  takes  Nos.  1 
and  2;  for  the  estimation  of  intellectual  ability,  he  divides  the 
rubrics  into  three  groups,  (1)  those  that  serve  as  indirect  in- 
dexes of  intelligence  (Nos.  1,  2,  and  3),  (2)  those  that  serve  as 
direct  evidence  of  intelligence  (Nos.  4  to  12,  including  a  state- 
ment of  the  relation  of  Nos.  1  and  2),  and  (3)  those  that  serve 
as  secondary  symptoms  of  degree  of  mental  development  (Nos. 
13  and  14).  Now,  for  each  of  these  condensed  indexes,  the 
grade  of  each  S  is  indicated  as  (1)  above  average,  (2)  average, 
or  (3)  below  average,  and  final  comparisons  and  correlations 
are  based  upon  these  grades. 


The  author  is  inclined  to  regard  this  phenomenon  as  a  simple  case  of 
attempt  on  the  part  of  a  few  S's  to  get  the  series  right  by  beginning  with 
the  last  word  heard  and  working  back  to  the  first  section.  8  may  have 
intentionally  disregarded  instructions  to  reproduce  in  the  order  given,  or 
may  have  interpreted  these  instructions  to  include  the  reverse  order  as 
acceptable.  In  other  words,  it  scarcely  seems  probable  that  the  child  does 
not  know  that  ho  has  reversed  the  order  of  presentation. 


TEST  38  :  MEM Oin    FOR  SEBIAL  IMPRESBION8      [535]     L69 
D.      MEMOES   FOE  BENTENCES 

In  Hi«.  first  (1905)  Beries  of  tests  proposed  by  Binel  and 
Simon  there  was  included  a  tesl  of  memory  for  sentences;  in 
the  Becond  (1908)  series,  sentences  of  «'..  L6  and  26  syllables 
were  inserted  in  the  tests  for  •">.  «',  and  12  years,  respectively  ; 
in  the  third  (1911)  scrips  a  tesl  of  memory  for  sentences  is 
used  ;il  5  and  15  years.  In  my  previous  accounl  of  the  L908 
series  I  inserted  a  provisional  set  of  21  sentences  ranging  in 
length  from  2  to  I-  syllables.  These  were  subsequently  tried 
out  by  .Mrs.  Squire,  and  another  analogous  set  of  21  sentences 
was  arranged  by  Carpenter  when  he  repeated  Mrs.  Squire's  test. 

Abels. Ml  alSO  Used  ;i  scl   of  seiilelices  of  progressive  Length  in  llis 

tesl  of  backward  children. 

Material. — Two  printed  slips  each  containing  -1  test  sen- 
tences  (2  to  I-  syllables  i.  j  For  visual  presentation,  two  pieces 
of  cardboard.] 

Sel  I  Is  the  same  as  thai  published  by  "lie  author  as  an  adjunct  to  the 
Binet-Shnon  tests  I  tf)08  series),  save  thai  the  iliii  sentence  lias  been  made 
easier  and  the  I2tb  and  iTih  sentences  have  been  made  harder  to  remedy 
the  discrepancies  round  by  .Mrs.  Squire  in  the  original  set  (74.  p.  379  i 

Sel  II  is  the  same  as  that  published  by  Carpenter,  save  thai  the  7th  and 
'.nil  sentences  have  been  simplified  to  remedy  the  discrepancies  that  lie 
pointed  out  and  thai  the  lOtb  sentence  lias  been  replaced  by  another,  be- 
cause, in  my  judgment,  it  differed  markedly  from  the  others  In  content 
and  nieaningfulness  for  children. 

No  nttempl  has  been  made  to  equate  the  two  sets  in  respecl  to  difficulty 
of  corresponding  sentences.     Sel   II  is  probably  less  well-arranged  than 

Sel    I. 

Method. — Explain  to  S  thai  he  is  to  repeat,  after  once  hear- 
ing, a  number  of  sentences;  thai  these  will  be  given  one  at  a 
time,  beginning  with  an  easy  sentence  and  becoming  more  and 
more  difficult.  Make  clear  thai  he  must  try  to  repeat  the  sen 
tence  exactly,  word  for  word.  Lei  8  sit  with  his  back  to  E. 
Begin  with  a  sentence  well  within  n's  grasp — say,  with  the  sec- 
ond sentence  for  (i-year-old  children,  or  with  the  fourth  or  tilth 
sentence  for  older  ones.  Read  each  sentence  hut  once,  slowly 
and  distinctly.  Proceed  until  positive  that  no  more  sentences 
could  he  correctly  repeated,  until,  say.  8  has  failed  with  three 
sentences  in   succession.     Failure   is  recorded    for  anv  altera 


170    [530]         ASSOCIATION,    LEARNING   AND    MEMORY 

tion,  even  for  a  single  substitution,  insertion  or  omission.    Re- 
peat, if  desired,  with  Set  II. 

Variation  of  Method. — For  auditory-visual  presentation, 
arrange  the  two  pieces  of  cardboard  to  display  the  material, 
one  sentence  at  a  time.  Let  8  read  them  aloud,  once  over,  and 
immediately  repeat  what  he  has  read. 

For  the  many  other  possible  variations  of  method,  such  as 
increasing  1  lie  number  of  presentations,  introducing  an  interval 
between  presentation  and  reproduction,  see  under  Variations 
of  Method  in  the  preceding  tests  of  rote  memory. 

Treatment  of  Data. — The  simplest  plan  is  to  treat  the  test 
as  one  of  memory  span  for  sentences.  $'s  score  would  then  be 
the  longest  sentence  that  he  could  repeat  without  error. 

The  difficulty  which  may  then  arise  from  missing  one  sen 
tence  and  succeeding  with  the  next  is  perhaps,  however,  best 
resolved  by  using  for  the  score  the  total  number  of  sentences 
correctly  repeated ;  thus,  if  the  first  8  are  correct,  the  9th  missed, 
the  10th  accomplished  and  the  remainder  missed,  the  score  is  9 
sentences,  not  8  or  10. 

On  account  of  the  individual  differences  in  the  difficulty  pre- 
sented by  the  same  sentences  to  different  8%  the  unreliability 
of  the  test  should  be  lessened  by  using  both  sets  of  sentences 
whenever  time  permits ;  in  this  case  the  average  score  secured 
by  the  two  trials  may  be  taken  as  8's  final  record. 

E.       MEMORY    FOR   PICTURES    OF   OBJECTS 

The  first  Binet-Simon  series  (1905)  contained  one  test  (No. 
17)  in  which  a  card  of  13  pictures  of  objects  was  shown.  De- 
croly  and  Degand  used  3  sets  of  8  pictures  each.  Mrs.  Squire 
and  Carpenter  used  a  card  of  30  such  pictures,  while  Lapie 
presented  a  series  of  8  pictures,  successively,  at  the  rate  of 
one  per  second. 

This  test,  which  has  an  obviously  close  relation  to  the  test 
of  visual  apprehension  (No.  25)  and  to  Binet's  card  of  objects 
(No.  32A),  would  appear  to  have  some  advantages  over  more 
formal  material,  like  digits  and  letters,  for  use  with  younger 
children. 


II. si  '38:  MEMORY  FOB  8ERIAL  IMPRESSIONS     [537]     171 

Material. — Cardboard  on  which  is  pasted  small  colored  pic- 
tures of  13  familiar  objects.    Stop-watch. 

Method. — Explain  the  uature  of  the  test  to  Sj  inform  him 
thai  he  is  t<>  have  half  a  minute  t<>  look  at  the  pictures,  and 
that  directly  afterward  he  is  to  name  as  many  of  the  objects 
as  he  can.  For  adults  or  older  children  ii  may  In-  found  desir 
able  to  reduce  the  time  of  exposure  to  L5  sec. 

Variations  of  Method.— -The  mere  enumeration  of  the  objects 
may  be  supplemented  by  a  demand  for  further  description  of 
them,  especially  of  their  colors,  <»r  of  their  location  on  tin* 
cardboard.  Mature  -s"s  may  be  quizzed  concerning  their 
method  of  memorizing  and  recalling  the  pictures.  They  may 
also  be  tested  for  recognition  l>y  presenting  the  cardboard, 
after  they  have  named  as  many  items  as  possible,  to  sec  whether 
the  omitted  items  can  be  readily  recognized,  or  they  may  be 
given  a  typewritten  list  of  30  or  4i)  objects  (including  those  on 
the  card)  from  which  they  are  to  pick  those  presented.  (Cf. 
Test  25,  B  and  Test  32,  A.) 

Treatment  of  Data. — Score  one  for  each  object  correctly 
Darned.  Make  record  of  insertions  and  substitutions.  Note 
which  objects  are  most  often,  which  least  often  recalled. 

Results. —  (1)  Norms  of  performance  for  memory  span  for 
digits  will  be  found  in  Tables  !>1  to  94,  for  letter  squares  in 
Tables  95  and  !»•;.  for  words  in  Tables  !>7  and  98,  for  sentences 
in  Table  !)!>  and  for  pictures  of  objects  in  Table  10U. 

TABLE  91 
Norms  of  Memory  span  for  Digits,  as  Conditioned  by  A(/<   (Smedley) 


AGE 

AUDITORY   SPAN 

VISUAL  SPAN 

AGE 

AUDI    OCV   SI  AN 

VISUAL    SPAN 

7 

5 

5 

11 

G 

7 

8 

5 

5 

15 

6 

7 

9 

5 

6 

16 

ii 

7 

10 

6 

G 

17 

7 

8 

11 

6 

6 

18 

(i 

7 

12 

G 

7 

19 

7 

8 

13 

6 

7 

172    [538]         ASSOCIATION,    LEARNING    AND    MEMORY 


TABLE  92 
Development  of  Memory  for  Digits  (Smedley) 


AVERAGE   AGE 

PER  CENT.   REPRODUCED 

Years         Months 

Auditory 

Visual 

7 

8 

19 

36.4 

35.2 

8 

8 

58 

44.6 

42.8 

9 

6 

100 

45.0 

47.4 

10 

5 

89 

49.4 

54.6 

11 

6 

91 

55.4 

64.7 

12 

6 

93 

55.7 

72.3 

13 

7 

109 

57.9 

76.8 

14 

6 

114 

66.2 

80.5 

15 

6 

94 

65.6 

78.2 

16 

6 

77 

66.9 

81.3 

17 

6 

56 

65.5 

84.1 

18 

5 

25 

67.2 

77.5 

19 

5 

12 

70.0 

85.3 

TABLE  93 
Dependence  of  Memory  Span  for  Auditory  Digits  on  Aye  (Jacobs) 


AGE 

8 

9 

10 

li 

12 

13 

14 

15 

16 

17 

18 

19 

Number 

tested 

8 

13 

19 

36 

41 

42 

42 

72 

66 

50 

& 

14 

Average 

Span 

6.6 

6.7 

6.8 

7.2 

7.4 

7.3 

7.3 

7.7 

8.0 

8.0 

8.6 

8.6 

TABLE  94 

Dependence  of  Memory  for  Auditory  Digits  on  Age  (Ebbinghaus) 

(Average  Number  of  Errors  per  Pupil  in  Two  Scries) 


AVERAGE  AGE 

8-DIG1T  SERIES 

9-DIGIT  SERIES 

10-DIGIT  SERIES 

6  TO  10  DIGITS 

10.7 

3.1 

5.1 

7.4 

17.8 

12.2 

2.9 

4.7 

7.9 

17.5 

13.2 

1.5 

2.6 

4.2 

9.1 

14.4 

1.6     . 

3.0 

4.9 

10.5 

15.5 

1.0 

2.1 

3.7 

7.6 

17.1 

0.8 

1.1 

3.9 

6.5 

18.0 

0.9 

1.4 

3.4 

6.1 

il.si.'JS:    MEMOm    FOB  SEBIAL  IMPRESSIONS     [539]    I7i> 


TABLE  95 
Memory  {<>>■  Letter  Squares,  fa  Relation  to  Age  a>i<i  Practise  I  Winch) 


SCHOOL 

11RADE 

NUMBER 
TE8TBD 

AVERAGE    ACE 

AVERAGE   SCORE 

1                           I 

1st  10  Tests   2d  10  Tests   3J  10  Tests 

Average 

for 

3  Seta 

Ex-vii. 

5 

11  yrs.  3  mos. 

23.8 

29.0 

31.7 

28.1 

vii. 

5 

13    "     5      " 

26.3 

27.9 

31.1 

28.4 

vi. 

5 

12    "     3      " 

26.8 

32.0 

34.6 

31.1* 

v. 

."> 

11    "      1      " 

IN.  1 

22.9 

26.3 

22.5 

iv. 

Ii 

10    "     5      •' 

21.3 

24.8 

26.6 

24.2 

iii. 

6 

9    "     0      " 

11.1 

17.7 

19.7 

17.1 

ii. 

6 

8    "     2      " 

13.2 

16.8 

17.2 

15.7 

•The  glrla  of  this  group  proved  to  bave  special  ability. 

TABLE  90 
Memory  for  Letter  Squares,  Score  for  10  Trial*  (Anderson) 


MINIMl'M 


8 

52 

108.2 

47 

198 

9 

92 

109.7 

36 

182 

10 

115 

127.7 

35 

213 

11 

126 

139.8 

60 

264 

12 

139 

157.8 

76 

272 

13 

125 

156.9 

52 

298 

14 

96 

165.6 

74 

283 

15 

58 

170.8 

67 

323 

16 

25 

181.6 

104 

318 

TABLE  97 
Memory  for  Concrete  Words  in  Relation  to  Age  and  Sex  (PyU  ) 


SEX 

AGE 

8 

9        10 

11 

12 

18 

14 

16 

16 

17 

It 

ADULTS 

Male 

Female 

Cases 
Mean 

Cases 
Mean 

:i    58    64    55    60    60 
31.232.435.837.737.738.3 

»7   '68   '(59    52    70    .".1 
32.9  32.7  39.6  37.7  38.7  40.4 

1 

35 

40.0 

34 
14.2 

25 

ld.2 

13 

42.il 

117      5 
l"..l  15.7  49.0 

17      8      2 
42.5  10.5  52.0 

64 
44.3 

88 
47.6 

174     [540  |  ASSOCIATION,    LEARNING    AND    MEMORY 


TABLE  98 
Memory  for  Abstract  Words  in  Relation  to  Aye  and  Sex  (Pyle) 


SEX 

AGE 

8 

9 

10 

11 

12 

13 

14 

15 

16 

17 

18 

ADULTS 

Male 
Female 

Cases   34 
Mean   22.9 

Cases   °.7? 
Mean  20.5 

■      1      |      1      ! 
58    63    55    60    60    35    25    14 
26.3  26.8  31.7  31.0  32.4  37.3  34.1  40.0 

68    '69    52    69    52    34    13   |17 
24.0  31.0  31.8  34.0  36.0  39.0  37.8  41.0 

Mill     i 

7 
41.1 

9 

37.0 

5        62 
40.8      42.3 

2    1     88 
49.0      39.8 

TABLE  99 

Average    X umber  of   Sentences   Correctly  Repeated    (After  Squire   anil 

Carpenter) 


AGE 

6               7 

8 

9 

10 

n 

12 

13 

14 

Squire    

Carpenter 

7.8       8.4 
5.3       6.0 

9.8     10.1 
6.2       7.2 

10.9 

7.4 

10.9     13.5     14.5 
7.7       8.0       8.3 

1           i 

8~5 

TABLE  100 

Memory  for  Pictures  of  Objects   (After  Squire  and  Carpenter) 


AGE 

6 

7 

8 

9 

10 

n 

12 

13 

14 

Squire   __      _  _  _ 

5.3 
5.3 

6.5 
6.1 

9.5  i     9.8 

9.1 
7.5 

11.4 
7.5 

10.5 

8.4 

10.0      _  . 

Carpenter  _    _ 

6.0 

7.3 

9.2 

10.0 

In  comparing  new  data  with  these  results,  differences  in 
method  must  always  he  kepi  in  mind.  The  differences  between 
Smedley's  conduct  of  the  memory-span  test  and  that  prescribed 
above  has  already  been  described.  The  data  of  Table  92  are 
shown  graphically  in  Fig.  71.  It  will  be  noted  that  Table  93 
deals  with  averages,  Table  91  with  standards  of  performance. 
Table  94  with  number  of  errors.  Supplementing  Tables  91  and 
93,  W.  V.  Bingham  has  reported  to  me  the  following  results 
for  auditory  memory  span  for  digits,  secured  from  some  200 
Dartmouth  freshmen  :  median  7,  P.  E.  0.34,  range  from  5  or 
less  to  12. 


L'E8T$8:   MEMORY    FOR  SERIAL  IMPRESSIONS     i  5  •  1  i     !'•' 

I  am  Dot  able  to  explain  the  differences  between  the  avei 
for  letter-squares  reported  by  Winch  and  by  Anderson,  Bave  on 
(In-  basis  of  selection  of  Sf's:  Anderson's  results  svere  obtained 
under  my  direction  at   Ithaca.  N.  v.,  and  include  children  in 
the  public  Bchools  with  no  attempt  at  selection. 

With  reference  to  Table  99,  the  discrepancies  between  the 
results  of  the  investigators  arc  due  primarily  to  two  causes: 
Mrs.  Squires'  data  refer  to  unretarded  children  only,  and  are 
based,  as  already  explained,  upon  a  different  set  of  sentences. 
Th.it  the  firsl  of  these  factors  is  the  more  important  seems  indi- 
cated by  similar  divergencies  in  Table  tOO,  where  the  experi- 
mental conditions  must  have  been  nearly  identical.  Other 
minus   for  sentences   based    npon   results   with    the    I'.inet    tests 

include   as   standards:   capacity    to   repeat    a    sentence   of   fi 

syllables  at  :i  years,  of  LO  syllables  at  5  years,  of  t6  syllables  al 
6  years  and  of  26  syllables  at  \'2  years.  It  is  unnecessary  to 
add  that  much  depends  upon  the  sentences. 

With  regard  to  Table  LOO,  it  must  be  remembered  that  the 
averages  given  are  based  upon  a  presentation  of  a  group  of  30 
objects:  the  use  of  13  objects  as  specified  in  the  directions 
above  will  yield  somewhat  smaller  averages;  competent  adults 
usually  gel  but  11  objects  after  an  exposure  of  L5  sec.  For  the 
exposure  of  L3  pictures  Binet  reported  the  following  average 
performances:  at  7  years.  4.::  pictures;  at  9  years.  6.2  pictures; 
at  1  1  years,  7.L*  pictures. 

(2)  Dependence  on  age.  That  memory  capacity  increases  in 
general  from  the  early  to  the  late  school  years  is  illustrated  in 
Tables  91  to  101.  The  general  evidence  is  fairly  clear  that  this 
improvement  is  steady  up  to  puberty,  but  that  it  suffers  fluctua- 
tions after  that  period  i  see  Tables  92,  94,  96,  (.»7.  98).  Several 
investigators  adduce  evidence  that  corroborates  the  popular 
notion  that  there  exists  a  special  'memory  period.'  or  Btage  of 
maximal  efficiency  somewhere  in  the  'teens,'  when  memory  is 
stronger  than  it  is  later.  For  example,  the  very  careful  work 
of  Pohlmann,  with  varied  materials  and  varied  forms  of  pres 
entation,  yields  the  net  results  (method  of  retained  members) 
shown  in  Table  101.  in  which  maximal  efficiency  is  indicated  at 
14.  followed  by  fluctuations,  without  real  improvement  through 


176    [542J  ASSOCIATION;    LEARNING    AND    MEMORY 


the  adolescent  period.  Bourdon  could  discern  progress  from  8 
to  13,  but  not  from  14  to  20.  Bernstein  and  Bogdanoff,  in  test- 
ing memory  for  geometrical  figures  by  the  method  of  recogni 

TABLE  101 
Net  Efficiency  of  Various  Memories,  in  Relation  to  Age  (Pohlmann) 


AGE 

9 

10 

n 

12 

13 

14 

15 

16 

17 

18 

19 

20 

Average 
Capacity 

39.4 

41.4   55.7 

59.1 

62.1 

68.9 

55.3 

62.9 

58.6  58.0    65.4 

68.3 

tion,  found  that  23  *S"s  aged  14  to  15  averaged  better  than  the 
55  adults  that  they  tested.  Wessely,  who  tested  retention  din- 
ing a  long  period  (1  and  2  years),  was  convinced  that  ability 
to  retain  and  reproduce  poems  is  maximal  at  the  years  12  to  14. 
and  that  vocabularies  (Latin-German)  are  reproduced  more 
accurately  at  the  expiration  of  1  to  4  weeks,  when  learned  by 
12-year-old,  than  when  learned  by  15-year  old  S's.  Similar 
assertions  concerning  the  relative  amount  of  retentive  capacity 
for  poems  by  children  and  by  adults  are  made  by  Larguier  (48, 
185  ff.),  while  Binet  (8,  259  ff.)  believes  that  children  have  the 
better  retentive  capacity,  and  adults  the  better  attentive 
capacity. 

Over  against  this  evidence  for  a  decline  of  efficiency  after  14 
we  have  the  figures  of  Jacobs  (Table  93)  and  the  emphatic 
statement  of  Smedley  (TO,  p.  49),  based  upon  his  Chicago  re- 
sults (Table  92),  that  "there  is  no  'memory  period,'  no  period 
in  early  school  life  when  the  memory  is  stronger  than  it  is  at 
any  later  portion  of  the  child's  life."  Smedley 's  records  do, 
indeed,  show  that  "auditory  memory  develops  rapidly  up  to 
about  14  years  of  age,  and  but  slowly  after  this  period.  The 
visual  memory  seems  to  develop  rapidly  up  to  about  15  or  10 
years  of  age."  .  .  .  "It  will  be  noted  [Fig.  71]  that,  in  the  early 
life  of  the  child,  the  auditory  memory  is  stronger  than  the 
visual  memory;  after  about  9  years  of  age,  the  visual  memory 
of  most  of  the  children  becomes  stronger  than  the  auditory 


I'EST  38 :  MEMORY  fobskjuai   impressions    [543]    ITT 


90 


d 


Age 
7 


9  10  11  12  13  14  15  16  17  18  19  20 


85" 
80" 
75" 
70" 
65" 
60" 
55- 

50" 
45" 
40" 


35" 


/ 

/ 
/ 

-  __x 

V 

/ 

1 
1 

' 

1 
1 

I 

1 

■s> 

^ 

&> 

1 
1 
1 

I 

1 
1 

1 

1 

/ 

1     , 

/    / 

t 

1 

1/ 

1 

/  / 
/  / 

/  / 

/ 

in,.   71.      DEVEL0PMEN1    01     MEMOS?   FOB   DIQIT8      (From    SiiumIU'Y  I . 


ITS    [544]         ASSOCIATION,,    LEARNING    AND    MEMORY 

memory,  and  continues  to  develop  more  rapidly  than  the  audi- 
tory memory  throughout  school  life.  Yet,  even  in  the  high 
school,  there  still  remains  a  small  proportion  of  the  pupils 
whose  hearing  memory  is  the  stronger." 

The  dependence  of  different  types  of  memory  upon  age  has 
been  studied  especially  by  Netschajeff  and  by  Lobsien.  They 
agree  substantially  that,  while  the  various  forms  of  memory 
improve  with  age  on  the  whole,  there  are  periods  of  rapid  de- 
velopment, followed  by  no  improvement  or  even  by  a  reduction ; 
that  while,  on  the  whole,  the  greatest  improvement  occurs  dur- 
ing the  years  10  to  12,  and  development  is  retarded  after  14, 
yet  the  different  forms  of  memory,  considered  specifically,  de- 
velop at  different  rates,  and  at  periods  that  may  not  coincide 
in  the  two  sexes.  Thus,  in  boys,  memory  for  objects  is  at  first 
best  developed,  then  follow,  in  order  of  chronological  develop- 
ment, memory  for  visual  terms,  for  acoustic  terms,  for  actual 
sounds,  for  tactual  terms,  for  numbers,  for  abstract  terms,  and 
finally  for  emotional  terms.  For  girls,  the  chronological  order 
is:  visual  terms,  objects,  sounds,  numbers,  abstract  terms, 
acoustic  terms,  tactual  terms,  emotional  terms.  Special  stress 
is  laid  upon  the  parallelism  of  development  between  memory 
for  numbers  and  memory  for  abstract  terms. 

In  Meumann's  word-list  tests,  those  types  of  error  that  indi- 
cate poor  intelligence  decreased  with  age,  until,  at  14  and  15, 
instances  of  misunderstood  abstract  terms  were  limited  to 
about  10  per  cent,  of  his  8%  while  meaningless  fusions,  mean- 
ingless insertions,  and  the  substitution  of  concrete  for  abstract 
terms  had  nearly  disappeared,  and  the  memory  for  abstract 
terms  had  so  increased  as  frequently  to  be  superior  to.  that  for 
concrete  terms.  It  follows  that  age  must  always  be  taken  into 
account  in  the  interpretation  of  this  test,  particularly  in  esti- 
mating intelligence  by  it. 

Since  in  a  memory  test  so  much  depends  upon  the  conditions 
of  presentation,  as  will  appear  in  what  follows,  I  am  inclined 
to  regard  many  of  these  generalizations  as  of  significance  only 
under  the  particular  conditions  of  the  testing.  The  one  safe 
generalization  as  to  dependence  on  age  would  appear  to  be  that 
made  at  the  outset,  viz. :  capacity  for  immediate  verbatim  re- 


i  i.m  38  :   M  i.\mik\    FOR  SERIAL  IMPRESSION  8     [545]     It-' 

production  increases  decidedly  from  early  life  in  puberty,  par- 
ticularly during  the  period  between  10  and  L2,  and  increases 
more  slowly  ami  with  fluctuations  from  puberty  to  maturity. 
The  results  of  Cohn  and  Dieffenbacher,  aol  here  reproduced  in 

detail.  als.»  accord  entirely  with  this  conclusion,  as  do  the 
position  of  the  medians  in  Anderson's  percentile  curves  (Figs. 
72  and  73). 

(3)    Dependence  on  sex.     In  general,  girls  pretty  certainh 

surpass  Ix.ys  in  immediate  memory,  bul  the  differences  are  nol 
always  marked  and  perhaps  do  no1  extend  to  all  forms  of  mate- 
rial. Investigations  that  agree  in  showing  a  general  supe 
riority  of  <iiils  and  women  over  hoys  and  men  are  those  of 
Anderson,  Burt,  Bolton,  Calkins,  Kirkpatrick,  Pohlmann  and 
Schuyten.  Hurt  and  Moore  state  thai  only  12.6  per  cenl  ol 
hoys  exceed  the  median  of  girls,  and  add  thai  ••feminine  supe- 
riority is  a  constant  phenomenon  in  memory  lists  of  every 
kind.  It  mailers  little  what  the  age  or  training  of  the  subjects 
may  be.  Hence,  it  is  one  of  the  best  attested  sex-difference* 
and  one  of  the  most   likely  to  be  innate."  " 

The  results  of  Anderson's  extensive  tests  with  letter  squares 
have  Im  en  summarized  in  Table  96.  From  Anderson's  original 
data  there  have  been  arranged,  after  a  preliminary  process  of 
numerical  'smoothing,'  the  percentile  curves  shown  in  Figs. 
T'J  and  7.'!. 

Curves  of  this  construction  "are  so  valuable  for  diagnosing  the  station 
of  any  Individual's  performance  thai  these  curves  are  here  reproduced, 
despite  the  fact  thai  they  exhihil  a  Dumber  of  irregularities  due  to  the 
small  number  oi  cases  available  al  certain  ages.  I  have  also  calculated 
from  Anderson's  data  the  tables  of  distribution  i  loj  and  103).  it  is 
therefore  possible  for  any  /.'  to  use  these  data  by  adding  to  Ihein  further 
scores  and  then  recasting  the  percentile  curves  to  accord  with  the  cum 
bined  data.  For  this  purpose  the  semes  may  be  considered  as  if  they  were 
the  middle  points  within  the  ranges  here  indicated;  for  example,  the  dis- 
tribution for  9-year-old  boys  may  be  read,  ::  scores  of  65,  i  scores  of 
75,  etc. 

By  inspection  of  the  medians  (50th  percentiles)  in  these 
charts  il   will  be  seen   thai   ffirls  are  inferior  to  bovs  at   9  years 


"I  lind,  however,  some  difficulty  In  Identifying  Hie  figures  upon  which 
this  conclusion  is  based,  as  they  appear  in  Burt's  differenl  articles  nol  t<> 
refer  to  i lie  same  groups. 


180    [546]         ASSOCIATION.    LEARNING    AND    MEMORY 

330"         '°  2°  3°         4°  So         e>o  70  ©o         ^o       (OO 


280 


260 


240 


FIG.   72.      PERCENTILES  OF  MEMORY  FOR  LETTER  SQUARES,  BOYS       ( AllderSOn) . 


TEST  38 :  MEMOBJ    FOB  SEBIAL  IMPBE88ION8     [547]    181 


FIG.  7o.     VEKCENTILES  OF  MEMORY  FOB  LETTEB  SQUARES,  GIRLS      (Anderson). 


182    [548]         ASSOCIATION,    LEARNING   AND    MEMORY 

and  practically  the  same  as  boys  at  12  years,  but  that  else- 
where the  girls  are  superior  aDd  that  their  superiority  is  espe- 
cially striking  in  the  higher  percentiles.  The  curves  are  un- 
doubtedly affected  by  a  poor  group  of  girls  at  9  years  and  an 
unusually  good  group  of  boys  at  12  years,  since  the  progress 
with  age  is  decidedly  broken  at  these  points  in  the  manner 
mentioned.  On  the  whole,  Anderson  figures,  girls  are  some 
27  per  cent,  better  than  the  boys  in  letter  squares. 


TABLE  102 

Distribution  of  Boys'  Scores  in  Letter  Squares  (After  Anderson) 


AGE 

8 

9 

10 

n 

12 

13 

14 

15 

16 

60-  69 

1 

3 

1 

1 

70-  79 

1 

4 

4 

3 

1 

2 

80-  89 

2 

5 

2 

3 

3 

2 

1 

90-  99 

5 

5 

7 

9 

2 

2 

2 

100-109 

5 

3 

10 

2 

3 

6 

1 

2 

110-119 

0 

4 

9 

5 

3 

3 

1 

2 

120-129 

5 

6 

4 

4 

4 

3 

7 

1 

130-139 

1 

4 

3 

5 

9 

9 

2 

3 

3 

140-149 

0 

O 

6 

9 

6 

9 

4 

3 

1 

150-159 

0 

4 

3 

5 

11 

8 

3 

2 

1 

160-169 

1 

1 

3 

4 

7 

4 

3 

2 

1 

170-179 

0 

1 

4 

9 

3 

2 

5 

2 

180-189 

1 

0 

3 

3 

4 

3 

5 

1 

190199 

1 

2 

1 

5 

4 

2 

1 

200-209 

0 

2 

2 

3 

2 

1 

210-219 

0 

3 

1 

3 

0 

0 

220-229 

0 

1 

3 

1 

1 

0 

230-239 

0 

2 

2 

1 

0 

0 

240249 

1 

1 

1 

0 

0 

250-259 

0 

0 

1 

0 

260-269 

1 

1 

1 

270-279 

1 

Total— 

21 

43 

54 

61 

72 

68 

43 

31 

12 

In  other  investigations  the  superiority  of  girls  is  either  less 
clearly  evident  or  exhibited  in  some  aspects  of  the  tests  only. 
Thus  Lobsien's  tests  with  varied  materials  (Table  106)  likewise 
showed  that  girls  reproduced  more,  but  that  boys  were  more 


TEST  38  I  MEMORY    FOB  SEBIAL  IMPBES8ION8     [549]     L83 


TABLE  103 

Distribution  of  Girls'  Scores  In  Letter  Squares  I  Vfter   Indci 


AGE 

8 

9 

10 

n 

12 

18 

n 

15 

16 

30-  39 

1 

in-  49 

1 

2 

0 

50-  59 

0 

0 

0 

1 

60-  69 

1 

1 

1 

1 

1 

70-  79 

2 

3 

2 

2 

1 

0 

1 

0 

SO-  89 

5 

A 

3 

1 

1 

2 

2 

0 

90-  99 

4 

5 

1 

3 

2 

2 

1 

1 

Km  lull 

4 

!i 

1 

5 

5 

2 

0 

1 

1 

L10-119 

2 

11 

1 

3 

4 

0 

1 

0 

0 

121 H  I'll 

6 

2 

7 

10 

4 

5 

2 

0 

1 

130  139 

3 

1 

10 

6 

7 

ii 

5 

2 

II 

lln  149 

1 

5 

in 

7 

8 

9 

ii 

n 

1 

150  159 

ii 

1 

•_' 

ii 

."> 

3 

n 

o 

i 

1 

160  169 

0 

1 

1 

6 

3 

3 

6 

3 

1 

17IU7:) 

o 

2 

3 

7 

5 

5 

2 

2 

180-189 

1 

0 

2 

4 

6 

6 

1 

0 

190-199 

1 

4 

6 

3 

3 

7 

1 

200-209 

1 

2 

4 

0 

3 

0 

1 

210-219 

1 

3 

0 

3 

0 

3 

220-229 

1 

2 

1 

0 

0 

230-239 

0 

1 

0 

0 

240-249 

0 

0 

o 

0 

250  259 

1 

0 

0 

0 

260-269 

1 

0 

0 

0 

270-279 

1 

0 

0 

0 

280-289 

0 

1 

0 

0 

290-299 

1 

0 

0 

300-309 

0 

0 

310-319 

0 

1 

320-329 

1 

Total.. 

31 

48 

61 

65 

67 

57 

53 

26 

13 

apl  to  gel  the  <>.  ..-i-  right.13  Netschajeff  also  concluded  that 
girls  made  more  illusory  errors  (especially  at  ages  9  to  11). 
Be  also  found  that  boys  had  the  better  memory  for  real  objects, 
girls  for  numbers  and  words,  in  which  they  surpassed  boys, 
particularly  during  the  years  11  to  U.    Wissler's  tabulation 


''Note  analogous  results  In  the  Tesl  of  Reporl  i  N 


184    [550]         ASSOCIATION,    LEARNING    AND    MEMORY 

of  the  freshmen  tests  at  Columbia  University  and  Barnard 
College  reveals  sex  differences  in  memory  span  for  digits  that 
are  less  than  the  P.E.  of  the  averages,  and  that  favor  the  men 
for  auditory,  and  the  women  for  visual   series    (Table  105). 


TABLE  104 

Percentage  of  Accuracy  In  Memory  for  2-place  Xumbcrs   (Schuyten) 


MORNING 

AFTERNOON 

First  test 
(Afternoon  first) 

Boys 

Girls 

58.1 
69.6 

64.0 
77.5 

Second  test 
(Morning  first) 

Boys 

Girls 

57.9 
62.6 

35.0 
55.1 

TABLE 

10.5 

Sex  Differences  in  Memory  Span  for  Digits  in  College  Freshmen 

(Wissler) 


AUDITORY   PRESENTATION 

VISUAL  PRESENTATION 

Number 

Average 

P.  E. 

Number          Average 

P.E. 

Men 
Women 

266 
42 

7.6 
7.3 

0.4 
0.5 

142               6.9 
42               7.3 

0.5 
0.4 

Pyle's  averages  for  memory  for  words  show  possibly  an  advan- 
tage for  the  girls,  but  the  differences  are  only  slight.  Colin  and 
Dieffenbacher,  similarly,  find  that  girls  surpass  boys  only  when 
groups  of  the  same  school  grade  and  same  social  status  are  com- 
pared, and  that  when  the  results  are  plotted  by  age  the  curves 
cross  each  other  six  times,  so  that  the  sex-difference  which  ap- 
pears  in   lump   comparisons  turns  out   to   be   practically   an 

accident. 

(4)  Dependence  on  practise,  (a)  General.  Practise  produces 
a  measurable  increase  in  the  memory  span  (Bolton).  In  the 
use  of  nonsense  syllables,  indeed,  the  practise  effect  can  be  dis- 


TEST  38  :  MEMORY    FOB  SERIAL  IMPBESSION8     [ool]     L85 

cerned  even  at  the  expiration  of  60  days  of  experimental  work 
(Mttller  and  Schumann  |. 

Winch,  from  his  use  of  the  letter-square,  as  well  as  of  audi- 
tory letter  series,  nol  only  declares  that  there  is  a  "marked 
and  almost  invariable  improvement,"  bu1  "thai  'pure  memory' 
is  markedly  improvable  by  practise"  (80,  p.  L34).  Thus,  38  £'fi 
ages  8  to  over  14,  obtained,  in  •"•  sets  of  L0  tests  each  il  week 
between  the  1st  and  2d,  and  -  weeks  between  the  2d  and  3d), 
the  average  scores  20.6,  24.4,  and  26.6  (averages  of  the  scores 
of  Table  95). 

(6)  The  transfer  of  practise  from  the  specially  trained  form 
of  memory  to  other  forma  of  memory  would  appear,  from  the- 
oretical grounds,  to  be  limited  to  those  cases  in  which  the  mate- 
rial, content,  or  method  of  procedure  o£  the  other  forms  were 
related  to  the  material,  content,  or  method  of  procedure  of  the 
trained  form.  This  is  essentially  the  conclusion  reached  by 
Eberl  and  .Menmann  (25,  p.  200),  who  say:  "The  objective 
results  of  our  experiment  show  thai  special  memory  practise 
is  accompanied  by  a  general  improvement  of  memory.  This  con 
comitanl  improvement  does  not.  however,  extend  equally  to  the 
other  'memories.*  hut  appears  to  follow  the  law  that  the  specific 
memories  participate  in  the  improvement  directly  in  proportion 
as  they  are  related  in  content,  or  in  media  and  method  of  learn- 
ing to  the  specific  memory  that  was  trained." 

Winch  has  been  led,  by  experiments  in  memorization  of 
poetry  ami  historical  prose  (81a),  to  take  the  more  radical 
stand  thai  "improvement,  gained  in  practise  in  memorizing 
one  subject  of  instruct  ion.  is  transferred  to  memory  work  in 
other  subjects  whose  nature  is  certainly  diverse  from  that  in 
which  the  improvement  was  gained,  ...  at  least  so  far  as 
children  of  these  ages  ami  attainments  are  concerned."  Again, 
in  his  second  paper  (81b)  he  concludes  that  "improvement 
through  practise  in  rote  memory  for  things  with  and  without 
meaning  is  followed  by  improvement  in  substance  memory  for 
stories."  and  this  even  though  the  correlation  between  the  two 
functions  is  very  low  and  even  doubtful. 

On  the  other  hand.  Starch  found  no  improvement   in  auditory 


186    [552J         ASSOCIATION;    LEARNING    AND    MEMORY 

memory  span  after  14  days  of  drill  in  mental  multiplication, 
and  Sleight  found  no  general  improvement  in  his  drilled  sec- 
tions, save  that  $'s  drilled  in  memorizing  poetry  or  tables 
showed  subsequent  improvement  in  memory  for  nonsense  syl- 
lables, on  account,  he  thinks,  of  the  use  of  rhythm  in  these 
types  of  memorizing.  Drill  in  memory  for  'prose  substance' 
improved  that  sort  of  memory,  but  no  other,  and  even  worked 
disastrously  for  subsequent  memorizing  of  nonsense  syllables. 
The  conclusions  reached  by  Ebert  and  Meumann  have  been 
criticized  by  several  writers  and  directly  controverted  by  Wes- 
sely,  who  says  that  for  memory  there  seems  to  be  no  formal 
practise  effect.16 

(5)  Dependence  on  fatigue.  Though  fatigue  may  affect -im- 
mediate memory  and  undoubtedly  does  so  when  severe,  it  is  diffi- 
cult to  arrange  memory  tests  that  will  serve  as  useful  indexes 
of  fatigue,  particularly  because  either  practise  or  ennui  affects 
the  results  more  than  does  true  fatigue.  On  this  point  we  find 
Bolton,  Ebbinghaus,  Schuyten  and  Smedley  in  agreement.  Two 
investigators,  however,  have  secured  results  worth  mentioning. 
Winch  (82)  divided  pupils  into  two  equivalent  sections  and 
practised  them  with  letter-squares  until  the  rank-orders  were 
'steady.'  He  then  continued  the  tests  with  one  group  in  the 
morning,  with  the  other  in  the  afternoon.  Both  groups  showed 
improvement,  but  the  morning  workers  improved  from  2  to  0 
per  cent,  more  than  the  afternoon  workers.  Bitter  gave  up  the 
determination  of  fatigue  by  span  tests  with  numerals,  but  he 
did  achieve  results  which  he  considers  of  special  value  by  the 
use  of  6-term  series  of  two-syllabled  nouns.  With  this  material, 
he  finds  that  errors  increase  with  fatigue,  and  he  goes  so  far 
as  to  assert  that  this  test  is  the  best  one  available  for  the  in- 
vestigation of  fatigue. 


"Allusion  may  be  made  in  this  connection  to  the  evidence  for  transfer 
found  by  Dallenbach  with  experiments  in  the  analogous  field  of  visual 
apprehension  (Test  25).  Aside  from  the  fact  that  Sleight  worked  with 
pupils  as  well  as  adults,  it  is  possible  that  the  discrepancies  noted  here 
concerning  the  transfer  of  practise  may  be  due  to  the  ages  of  the  fif's 
studied.  I  have  suggested  elsewhere  (JEdPs,  5:  1914,  302)  that,  particu- 
larly in  the  case  of  transfer,  experimentation  with  children  has  been 
neglected  and  that  results  secured  with  adults  may  not  necessarily  apply 
to  the  mental  processes  of  children. 


TEST  38  :  MEMORY    FOR  SERIAL  IMPRESSIONS     [553]     Is" 

itii  Dependency  on  physical  capacity.  Both  Netschajeff  and 
Smedley  find  that  pupils  thai  arc  larger,  Btronger,  and  better 
developed  physically  have  better  memories  than  tints.-  of  the 
contrary  type.  "This  Buggests,"  Bays  Smedley,  "thai  the  imme- 
diate sense  memory  is  dependenl  upoa  good  brain  formation 
and  outrition."    (See  7".  pp.  58-59,  for  numerical  evidence.) 

Miss  Kohnky  used  memory  span  for  digits  among  oilier  tesis 
in  an  investigation  of  the  effect  of  dental  treatmenl  upon 
pupils  in  a  5th-grade  Cincinnati  school.  The  series  \\  ith  <> 
dioiis  proved  too  easy  for  this  work;  the  series  with  8  digits 
yielded  virtually  the  same  results  for  treated  and  untreated 
pupils,1  bul  the  series  with  7  digits  yielded  a  gain  of  L0.8  per 
cent,  between  tests  made  in  October  and  in  the  following  -May 
in  the  ease  of  the  pupils  having  dental  treatment,  as  contrasted 
with  no  gain  in  the  pupils  without  treatment. 

(7)  Dependence  on  the  natun  of  the  material,  (a)  When 
digits  and  consonants  are  given  under  the  same  conditions, 
digits  are  easier  to  reproduce  (Jacobs,  Sharp),  especially  dur- 
ing the  years  8  to  l-*'>  (Bourdon  i.  But,  if  10-place  series  are 
presented  auditorily,  thrice,  the  order  of  excellence  for  recall 
is  ill  consonants.  (2) names  of  objects,  (3)  2-place  numbers, 
ih  nonsense  syllables  (Pohlmann). 

(6)  Netschajeff,  Lobsien,  Pohlmann,  and  less  elaborately 
Kirkpatrick  and  Calkins,  have  compared  memory  for  series 
made  up  of  real  objects,  of  numbers,  of  sounds,  and  of  words 

TABLE  100 
Memory  for  9-term  Series  of  Different  Kinds   (Lobsien) 


SCORE    IN    PER   CENT.    CORRECT 


KINO   OF   SERIES 


Real   objects 

Auditory  numbers- 
Sounds  

Tactual   terms 

Visual    terms 

Auditory  terms 

Emotional  terms- 
Foreign  terms 


Boys 

Girls 

91.4 

64.8 

71.8 

59.6 

62.2 

64.2 

71.0 

60.6 

67.2 

59.4 

60.2 

31.2 

59.4 

24.0 

'_'::> 

188    [554]         ASSOCIATION,    LEARNING    AND    MEMORY 

having  characteristically  visual,  auditory,  tactual,  or  emotional 
associative  meanings.  Table  106  gives  illustrative  results  from 
Lobsien.  rohlmann,  however,  concluded  that  the  assumption 
of  Netschajeff  and  Lobsien  that  the  presentation  of  visual, 
auditory,  and  other  terms  arouses  the  visual,  auditory,  and 
other  imagery  that  their  meaning  implies,  is  erroneous,  so  that 
the  results  of  these  investigations  are  of  little  real  significance. 

Kirkpatrick,  and  after  him  Miss  Calkins,  found,  like  Net- 
schajeff  and  Lobsien,  that  memory  for  objects  (or  pictures  of 
objects)  was  superior  to  that  for  words,  both  for  immediate 
and  for  delayed  reproduction ;  in  the  latter,  for  example,  there 
were  recalled  seven  times  as  many  objects  as  words.  The  same 
investigators  determined  the  order  of  excellence  for  recall  of 
different  kinds  of  words  to  be: — visual  terms,  auditory  terms, 
names  of  objects. 

(c)  Up  to  the  12th  year,  concrete  words  are  reproduced  better 
than  abstract  words,  but  14  and  15-year-old  $'s  frequently 
make  better  records  with  the  latter,  according  to  Meumann ; 
but  according  to  Pyle,  concrete  words  are  reproduced  better  at 
every  age.     The  average  difference  amounts  in  Pyle  and  in 


TABLE  107 
Memory  for  Related  and  for  Unrelated  Words  (A1 or 's worthy) 


Related  Woe 

ds.  288  Cases 

Unrelated  Words.  270  Cases 

Age 

BOYS 

girls 

boys 

GIRLS 

Median 

P.  E. 

Median 

P.  E. 

Median 

P.  E. 

Median 

P.  E. 

8 

13.0          1.0 

13.0 

1.6 

11.1 

1.6 

11.5 

u 

9 

14.0          2.0 

14.0 

1.7 

12.2 

1.7 

12.4 

1.4 

10 

15.0 

1.7 

15.3 

1.9 

12.2 

1.7 

14.4 

1.4 

11 

15.0 

1.7 

16.5 

1.7 

12.5 

1.8 

14.3 

1.4 

12 

16.4 

1.8 

16.0 

1.6 

12.8 

1.8 

14.0 

1.5 

13 

16.5 

1.8 

17.0 

1.5 

13.5 

2.1 

13.5 

1.5 

14 

16.9 

1.3 

17.5 

1.5 

13.7 

2.2 

14.0 

1.5 

15 

16.0 

1.3 

17.5 

1.5 

13.7 

2.2 

14.0 

1.5 

16 

17.0 

1.3 

17.8 

1.5 

14.0 

2.2 

14.5 

1.5 

Adults 

16.5 

1.5 

17.0 

1.9 

12.8 

1.2 

13.0 

1.4 

u.si  38:  MEMORY  FOB  8BRIAL  IMPBBBSIOX8     [555]     L88 

I'.ui-t  (16)  to  20  percent.,  roughly,  i.  <..  most  S'a  recall  about 
one-fifth  more  concrete  than  abstract  words. 

m/i  Related  terms,  i.  <•..  a  scries  of  words  not  in  a  sentence, 
but  readily  associated  with  one  another,  are  more  easily  re- 
called than  unrelated  words.  For  data,  see  Table  107  from 
Miss  Norsworthy. 

(e)  .Material  so  arranged  as  to  aid  localization  is  more  easily 
remembered,  especially  by  children.  For  example,  12  con- 
sonants in  the  letter-square  form  are  easier  to  recall  than  VI 
consonants  in  a  Bingle  line;  similarly,  digits  pronounced  in 
rhythm  are  easier  to  recall  than  digits  pronounced  in  even 
tempo  (Muller  and  Schumann).  Pohlmann  found  grouped 
series  to  be  easier  in   1.*!.".  of  1  1 1  trials. 

(8)  Dependence  on  sense-department  directly  stimulated.  It 
ie  evident  that  a  complete  isolation  of  the  differenl  modalities 
<  annot  be  accomplished  by  differenl  forms  of  presentation  :  e.  g.. 
auditory-minded  Sf's  may  actually  retain  and  reproduce  impres- 
sions presented  to  the  eye  in  auditory,  or  mainly  in  auditory 
terms,  and  so  on  i«f.  Abbott  and  Pinzi).  It  is  also  evident  that 
what  seem  like  minor  variations  in  the  manner  of  conducting 
the  test  may  occasion  considerable  variations  in  the  perform- 
ance of  N's.  These  fads  account  for  much  of  the  divergence 
and  seeming  contradiction  in  the  results  of  various  investi- 
gators with  regard  to  the  relative  advantage  of  addressing 
stimuli  to  differenl  senses.17 

With  regard  to  the  relative  advantage  of  auditory  over  visual 
presentation  Kemsies  found  presentation  by  ear  the  better  for 
Latin  words  and  for  nonsense  syllables;  von  Sybel  found  audi- 
tory presentation  better  than  visual  for  both  auditory  and 
visual  types  of  N's;  Eenmon  found  as  his  most  striking  result 
a  marked  superiority  of  auditory  over  visual  presentation  for 
all  of  his  n's  and  for  all  forms  of  material.  Hawkins  reported 
that  ten  nouns  heard  are  recalled  better  than  ten  nonns  suc- 
cessively seen  in  the  case  of  younger  N's,  but  that  the  reverse 


I7Those  divergencies  have  been  well  summarized  by  Henmon,  to  whose 
account  the  reader  is  referred  for  details  of  the  conclusions  reached  by 
Meumann,  Mlipsterberg  and  Bigham,  Quants,  Lay.  [tschner,  Fflchs  ami 
Haggenmtiller,  Colin.  Kemsies,  Final,  1'riinki.  Segal,  von  Sybel,  Schuyten, 

rohlmami  and  others,  together  with  his  own  conclusions. 


190    [55G]         ASSOCIATION,    LEARNING    AND    MEMORY 

holds  true  for  above  15  years.  Pohlmann's  extensive  experi- 
ments, which  are  criticized  by  Henmon  because  of  being  con- 
ducted by  the  group  method,  show  that  auditory  presentation 
is  better  for  meaningful  material  (words),  while  the  reverse 
is  true  with  non-significant  material  (digits  and  nonsense 
syllables).  On  the  other  hand,  the  superiority  of  visual  over 
auditory  presentation  appears  in  the  tables  and  charts  of 
Smedley  and  in  Chambers'  results  for  7th  and  8th  grade  pupils. 
>Vith  regard  to  the  advantage  of  combined  appeal  to  eye  and 
ear  or  to  eye,  ear  and  motor  memory  (articulation  or  writing), 
there  are  similar  discrepancies.  The  work  of  Pohlmann  (Table 
108)  indicates  a  superiority  of  auditory-visual  presentation 
over  either  auditory  or  visual  presentation,  alone — a  result  in 
accordance  with  Smedley's.  Pohlmann  also  investigated  the 
effect  of  these  three  forms  of  presentation  upon  numerals  and 
nonsense  syllables,  with  the  result  that  for  230  Volksschule 
girls,  using  10-term  series,  given  thrice,  the  percentage  of  accu- 
racy was,  for  visual-auditory  53  per  cent.,  for  visual  52  per 
cent.,  and  for  auditory  42  per  cent.,  which  agrees  in  substance, 
so  far  as  it  goes,  with  Smedley's  results  for  digits.  This  investi- 
gator found  the  order  of  superiority  to  be:  (1)  auditory-visual- 
articulatory,  (2)  auditory-visual,  (3)  auditory-visual-hand- 
motor,  (4  and  5)  visual  or  auditory  (depending  on  age).  Illus- 
trative figures  for  #'s  aged  10  years  are,  for  the  five  forms  just 


TABLE  108 

Dependence  of  Memory  upon  Form  of  Presentation  (Pohlmann) 

(Percentage  of  Retained  Members,  10-Tcrm  Series,  350  Pupils,  9-14  Years) 


NATURE   OF   MATERIAL 

FORM  OF  PRESENTATION 

PER- 
CENTAGE 
RETAINED 

Shown  and  named  bv  E . . 

72V8 
70 

Shown,  only,  successively 

Seen  and  beard  by  8. .. . 

4.  Names  of  objects 

Heard,  onlv.  bv  S 

55% 

502/-t 

6.  Names  of  objects 

Seen,     beard,    and     pro- 
nounced by  8 

49Vs 

In  tbe  upper  classes,  5  becomes  superior  to  4 


TEST  38:  MEMORY  FOB  BERIAL  [MPRE88I0NS     [557]    10J 

mentioned,  88.4,  80.0,  82.4  (circa),  80.0,  and  66  fx  c  cent,  re 
spectively.  Combined  appeal  is,  then,  most  powerful.  bu1  the 
task  of  writing  proves  somewhat  distracting.  ftfttnsterberg 
and  Bigham  conclude,  similarly,  thai  "a  scries  of  impressions 
offered  to  two  senses  at  the  same  time  is  much  more  easily  re 
produced  than  if  given  only  to  Bight  or  only  to  hearing."    Thus, 

in  the  case  of  10  numbers  the  per  cent,  of  error  for  numbers 
heard,  seen,  and  both  Been  and  heard  were  11.1.  10.5,  and  :!.'•». 
respectively.  On  the  other  hand.  Benmon  concludes  that  visual 
auditory-motor  presentation  is  slightly  inferior  to  the  auditory 
and  to  the  auditory-visual,  but  superior  to  the  visual  alone,  and 
thai  visual-auditory  presentation  is  slightly  inferior  to  the 
auditory  alone,  while  decidedly  superior  to  the  visual  alone. 
In  general,  he  found  the  advantage  of  combined  presentation 
much  less  than  that  reported  in  earlier  investigations.  Kemsies 
discovered  that  visual-auditory  presentation  usually  gave 
poorer  results  than  visual  or  auditory  alone  in  tests  with  Latin 
words  and  nonsense  words. 

The  question  as  to  whether  articulation  does  or  does  not 
assist  in  subsequent  recall  is  also  answered  differently  by  dif- 
ferent investigators.  Thus,  ('(dm  found  that  in  memorizing 
consonants  all  his  N*s  did  best  when  they  read  aloud,  less  well 
when  speech  movements  were  suppressed,  le;ist  well  when  num- 
bers or  vowels  were  pronounced  as  abstractors  during  the  read- 
ing of  the  consonants.  Quite  similar  results  which  were 
reached  by  Lay  in  his  investigation  of  the  teaching  of  spelling 
have  been  contested  by  llschner  and  by  Puchs  and  Eaggen- 
niiiller.  llenmon  also  declares  that  articulation  or  vocalization 
is  of  little  value  for  immediate  memory. 

A  closely  related  question  concerns  the  possibility  of  deter 
mining  N's  ideational  type  by  scrutiny  of  his  performance  under 
different  sorts  of  presentation.  Frankl  and  also  Segal  believe 
that  visual  presentation  gives  better  results  with  visual  types, 
auditory  with  auditory  types,  and  Meuinann  com  hides  from 
such  tests  that  in  learning,  better  reliance  can  be  placed  upon 
S's  type  than  upon  an  appeal  to  several  sense  departments.  But 
the  evidence  is  fairly  clear  that,  as  Angel]  says,  while  memory 
tests  "may  certainly  be  so  administered  as  to  show  over  whai 


192    [55S]         ASSOCIATION;    LEARNING    AND    MEMORY 

sensory  arcs  the  best  results  may  be  achieved  in  assimilating 
information  of. various  kinds  ...  as  objective  tests  of  imagery 
apart  from  introspection,  they  have,  few  virtues  and  no  relia- 
bility." 

(9)  Successive  vs.  simultaneous  presentation.  If  15  words 
are  exposed  simultaneously  or  successively  for  equivalent 
lengths  of  time,  successive  presentation  is  easier  for  young,  but 
simultaneous  for  older  children,  according  to  Hawkins. 

(10)  Dependence  on  number  of  presentations:  repetition. 
Pohlmann,  Lipmann,  Smedley,  and  others  have  found  that  hear- 
ing a  series  thrice  or  twice,  instead  of  once,  improves  its  recall. 
However,  Hawkins  found  two  hearings  less  effective  than  one 
or  three.  It  is  certain  that  more  is  accomplished  in  the  first 
hearing  than  in  a  large  number  of  repetitions,  and  that  the 
effect  of  repeated  presentation  is  different  in  different  S's,  so 
that  individual  differences  are  more  marked  after  many  hear- 
ings than  after  one  hearing  (Smith).  Sinedley's  test  of  38 
10-year  pupils,  with  auditory  digits,  gave,  for  the  first  hearing 
-17  per  cent.,  for  the  second  55  per  cent.,  and  for  the  third  59 
per  cent,  correct  reproduction.  In  some  of  Smith's  tests,  12 
presentations  did  not  double  the  efficiency  attained  in  one 
presentation. 

(11)  Dependence  on  rate  and  duration  of  exposure.  Berg- 
strom's  tests  indicate  that  nonsense  syllables  exposed  at  the 
rate  of  one  in  0.77  sec,  with  durations  of  exposure  of  .011,  .082, 
.161,  and  .318  sec.  yield  practically  the  same  results,  though 
there  is  a  slight  preference  for  .082  sec. 

The  same  investigator  found  that,  both  with  auditory  letter 
and  word  series  and  with  visual  nonsense-syllables  series,  a 
relatively  slow  rate  of  exposure  (1.5  to  2  sec.  per  term)  yielded 
more  accurate  results  than  a  faster  rate  (one  term  in  a  fraction 
of  a  second).  The  slower  rate  is  especially  helpful  in  lists  of 
words,  and  for  those  S'a  that  try  to  develop  associations  be- 
tween the  terms  as  they  are  presented.  Bergstrom  summarizes 
by  saying:  "The  acquisition  and  retention  of  a  series  of  fa- 
miliar associable  words  varies  approximately  as  the  logarithm 
of  the  interval  at  which  the  words  are  spoken"  (6,  p.  221). 

(12)  Dependence  on  interval  between  presentation  and  repro- 


TEST  38  :  MEMOIO   FOR  SEBIAL  IMPBESSION8     [559]    193 

duction.  Relatively  short  intervals  make,  apparently,  bnt  little 
chauge  in  reproduction.  Thus,  Winch  could  discern  no  clear 
differences  in  the  reproduction  by  school  children  of  letter- 
squares,  with  or  without   a  25-sec.   empty   interval   between 

presentation  and  reproduction. 

Binet  and  Miss  Sharp  compared  fmmediate  memory  with 
'recapitulatory'  memory  (memory  of  conservation) ;  they  both 
noted  that  the  word  lists  in  immediate  reproduction  seemed  to 
be  held  largely  by  sound  (so  that,  for  example,  such  errors  as 
floiccr  for  floor  were  common),  whereas  lists  reproduced  3  niin. 
later  appear  to  be  held  more  often  by  meaning,  since  "the  errors 
are  usually  additional  words  suggested  from  analogy  of  sense'' 
(e.  //.,  dog  suggested  by  cat,  cold  by  vomter,  etc.).19 

Attention  has  already  been  called  (7,  h,  above)  to  the  demon 
stratum  by  Kirkpatrick  and  by  Calkins  that  the  reproducibility 
of  different  forms  of  material  is  not  equally  affected  by  a  3-day 
interval. 

(13)  Effect  of  distraction.  Smith's  use  of  the  method  of  let- 
ter squares  (71),  with  and  without  the  distraction  of  concom- 
itant activities,  shows  the  order  of  efficiency  under  these  con- 
ditions to  be,  from  best  to  worst:— (1)  without  distraction, 
(2)  with  tapping  to  the  beat  of  a  metronome,  (3)  with  repeti- 
tion of  a  vowel,  and  (4)  with  counting  by  2's  or  3's.  Colin,  with 
the  same  test,  found  that  an  auditory-motor  8  was  more  se- 
riously disturbed  by  auditory-motor  distractors  than  a  visually 
minded  8,  and  that,  when  such  distraction  is  used,  visual 
memory  steps  in  to  aid,  provided  flf's  constitutional  make-up 
(Anlagc)  will  at  all  permit  (22,  p.  182). 

(14)  Reliability.  With  the  exception  of  Brown,  whose  co- 
efficients were  only  .50  to  .08,  investigators  have  found  tests  of 
immediate  memory  to  yield  a  satisfactory  degree  of  reliability. 
Examples  are:  Burt,  .70  for  one  group  of  8%  .93  for  another; 
Wyatt,  .75  for  one  group,  .70  for  another;  Abelson,  .74  to  .81; 
Simpson,  .73  for  all  fif's  collectively. 


"The  tendency  of  adults  is  away  from  rote  memorizing  in  favor  of  a 
memory  of  meanings.  It  would,  then,  be  Interesting  to  see  whether  chil- 
dren exhibited  these  same  tendencies  that  Sharp's  university  students 
did,  or  exhibited  them  in  as  marked  a  degree. 


104    [5G0J  ASSOCIATION,    LEARNING    AND    MEMORY 

(15)  Correlation  with  mental  ahility.  Bolton,  Ebbinghaus 
(Table  109)  and  Wissler  (who  found  a  correlation  of  but  0.16 
1  tctween  class  standing  and  the  memory  capacity  of  121  Colum- 
bia freshmen)  seem  to  be  the  only  investigators  to  deny  a  re- 
lationship between  immediate  memory  and  intelligence.  Jacobs. 
at  the  other  extreme,  asserts  that  there  is  a  ''notable  concom- 
itance" between  school  standing  and  "span  of  prehension." 
The  truth  would  appear  to  lie,  as  usual,  between  these  extremes. 
The  more  careful  correlational  work  of  the  past  few  years 
demonstrates  at  least  a  fairly  good  degree  of  correspondence 
between  immediate  memory  and  either  school  standing  or  esti- 
mated general  intelligence.  The  several  investigators  who  have 
found  correspondence  of  this  sort  have  expressed  their  con- 
clusions with  certain  restrictions  or  explanations,  as  will  ap- 
pear in  what  follows.  There  is  some  evidence,  for  example,  to 
indicate  that  the  correspondence  between  immediate  memory 
and  school  standing  is  closer  in  the  lower  than  in  the  higher 
grades,  and  that  the  correspondence  with  general  intelligence 
is  closer  with  tests  of  delayed  than  of  immediate  recall. 

TABLE  .109 
Relation  of  Memory  (or  Auditory  Digits  and  Intelligence  (Ebbinghaus) 


AVERAGE  NUMBER  OF  ER«ORS  PER  PUPIL 


Bright  Average  Dull 

Group  Group  Group 


9digit  test 84  87 

10-digit  test _•__!        147  147 


135 


6-10  digit  tests,  collectively j       318  319  303 


With  backward  children  Abelson  found  rather  low  correlations,  0.18 
and  0.19,  between  memory  for  names  and  imputed  practical  intelligence 
(competence  to  perform  errands),  but  higher  correlations  with  school  per- 
formances (0.20  and  0.24  with  estimated  ability  in  reading  and  0.30  and 
0.:i2  with  estimated  ability  in  arithmetic). 

Biiiet  (8)  contrasted  0  dull  and  5  bright  boys,  and  found  that,  on  the 
whole,  the  latter  surpassed  tbe  former  in  memory:  the  difference,  as  in 
his  tests  of  other  traits,  was,  however,  more  evident  at  the  first,  than  at 
any  subsequent  trial. 

Brown  found  correlations  of  0.4O  to  0.59  with  school  marks  and  0.49  to 
0.55  with  estimated  general  intelligence. 


N>i  38:  Ml.\i"i:\   FOB  SERIAL  IMPKES8ION8     [561]    1 '•»•"> 

Burt  estimated  Intelligence  in  various  ways  and  measured  memorj 
concrete  words,  abstrad  words  and  nonsense  syllables.  The  corrected 
correlations  for  estimated  Intelligence  and  general  standing  in  the  memory 
tests  were  0.00  Cor  Elementary  School,  and  0.82  for  Preparatory  School 
hoys.  The  uncorrected  correlations  were  higher  for  memory  for  concrete 
words  (0.58  and  0.84)  than  for  memory  for  abstract  words  (0.48  and 
o.T^i  :  those  for  nonsense  syllables  were  0.43  and  0.75,  while  the  amalga- 
mated memory  tests  correlated  by  0.67  and  0.69  with  examinations  in 
mathematics  and  by  0.82  with  examinations  In  literary  subjects  (In  the 
Prepai'atory  School).  Burt  argues  from  these  figures  thai  the  current 
examination  system  stresses  ability  to  remember,.  Meumann's  conclusion 
that  bright  children  display  a  relatively  superior  ability  in  memory  for 
abstract  terms  was  ool  substantiated  by  Burt. 

Conn  and  Dieffenbacher  divided  their  fif's  into  two  groups— the  better 
and  the  poorer  Intellectually.  The  former  excelled  the  latter  in  the 
memory  tests  in  LI  of  his  it  groups;  the  superiority  amounted  to  about 
Hi  per  cent.,  and  turned  out  to  be  less  In  the  higher  than  in  the  lower 
school  grades. 

Lapie  contrasted  pedagogically  advanced  with  pedagogically  retarded 
pupils,  and  concluded  thai  these  groups  differed  little  In  retentive  power 
as  Buch,  but  that  the  retarded  pupils  frequently  reproduced  the  material 
in  bizarre  and  contradictory  combinations,  ( .  >/..  as  in  speaking  of  "a  young 
peasant  o4  years  old." 

Meumann  says  that  the  quantity  of  material  reproduced  is  not  in  itself 
a  reliable  Index  of  Intelligence,  yet  the  average  results  of  mass  experi- 
ments will  always  show  that  the  more  intelligent  n's  have  the  better 
memory  efficiency.  His  own  experiments,  be  declares,  were  so  extensive 
and  so  carefully  executed  as  to  leave  no  doubt  at  all  upon  this  point  (51, 
p.  78).  More  reliable,  however,  are  the  qualitative  results  attained  from 
memory  tests  of  the  form  used  in  his  own  experiments.  Here,  he  Bays, 
virtually  complete  coincidence  is  found  between  the  several  Indexes  of 
Intelligence,  and  between  them  and  the  school  marks  and  the  estimate  of 
mental  ability  by  teachers.  Certain  characteristic  indexes  of  poor  intelli- 
gence, however,  such  as  the  fusion  of  abstract  terms  into  meaningless  col- 
locations, may  not  he  shown  by  all  of  the  stupid  children:  it'  they  are 
shown,  they  form  a  reliable  index  of  poor  intelligence,  while  if  frequent, 
they  indicate  not  only  poor  Intelligence,  tmt  also  the  lack  of  moral  quali- 
ties, such  as  self-control  and  carefulness.  Incidentally,  .Meumann  points 
OUl  that,  in  theory,  we  should  distinguish  carefully  between  natural  ability 
and  actual  ability  as  shown  in  school  performance;  these,  nevertheless, 
tend  to  coincide  in  practise. 

Pohlmann,  like  Binet,  dealt  with  contrasted  groups,  lie  concludes  that. 
while  in  general  the  better  pupils  have  better  memories,  there  are  uumer 
oils  exceptions,  particularly  in  that  poor  pupils  may  do  as  well  as  bright 
pupils  in  the  memory  tests. 

The  two  contrasted  groups  of  adult--  tested  by  Simpson  w  ere  fairly  well 
separated  by  his  tests  of  memory  for  words;  none  of  the  poor  group 
reached  the  median  performance  of  the  good  group,  and  only  1<>  per  cent, 
of  the  poor  group  were  as  good  as  the  lowest  6  per  cent,  of  the  good  group. 
The  correlation  with  the  estimated  intelligence  of  the  good  group  was 
0.93. 

Smedley  declares  that  the  "parallelism  between  school  standing  and 
memory  power  bolds  good  throughout  school  life"  (7<».  p.  54),  and  demon- 
strates this  by  reference  to  mass  results  distributed  to  show  the  memory 
capacity  of  pupils  of  a  given  age  in  different  grades  (Fig.  74  K  or  the 


1%    [562]         ASSOCIATION,    LEARNING    AND    MEMORY 


capacity  of  pupils  at  and  above  grade  as  compared  with  the  capacity 
of  pupils  below  grade  at  different  ages  (Table  110). 

Winch's  letter-square  tests  convince  him  that  "'general  mental  ability 
[rank  in  examinations  in  reading,  arithmetic,  dictation,  and  English 
composition]  is  accompanied  by  'good  memory.'  "  "With  two  exceptions, 
no  girl  whose  memory  mark  is  relatively  low  has  a  high  place  in  class."' 
"  "Good  memory,'  though  usually  accompanied  by  general  efficiency,  is  not 
invariably  so."  Again,  Winch  contrasted  six  13-year-old  girls,  who  stood 
between  Number  1  and  Number  11  in  a  class  of  35,  with  (5  girls  of  the 
same  age,  who  stood  25th  to  30th  in  a  class  of  30,  and  found  the  average 
score  of  the  bright  girls  to  be  20.9,  as  compared  with  an  average  score 
of  19  for  the  dull  girls  (80,  p.  133). 

WTessely  believes  that  the  correlation,  between  memory  and  class  stand- 
ing is  more  evident  in  lower  than  in  higher  grades — a  view  expressed 
also  by  Cohn  and  Dieffenbacher  and  which,  if  confirmed,  might  be  ex- 
plicable by  the  tendency  to  put  a  premium  upon  memorization  in  the 
lower  grades. 

Wyatt's  tests  with  nonsense  syllables  gave  as  a  correlation  with  intel- 
ligence 0.59,  P.E.  .07,  for  immediate  and  0.74,  P.E.  .06,  for  delayed  (2 
days)  reproduction;  his  tests  with  letter  squares  gave  a  negligible  eor- 
relation  0.18,  P.E.  .11. 

(16)  Memory  of  defectives.  Galton  applied  Jacobs'  tests  to 
imbeciles,  and  found  tbat  most  S's  of  this  type  failed  to  repeat 
more  than  4  digits,  while  several  imbeciles  avIio  had  remarkable 
memories  for  dates  or  for  passages  in  books  showed  complete 
failure  (span  not  over  3)  in  memory  for  digits.  Johnson  com- 
putes the  average  span  for  feeble-minded  (selected  S's  of  the 
so-called  'school-case'  group)  at  5.3,  or  approximately  1.3  digits 
less  than  the  normal  span  of  an  8-year  child.  The  distribution 
of  efficiency,  as  he  found  it,  is  shown  in  Table  111.  Johnson 
comments  upon  the  fact  that  the  difference  between  the  memory 

TABLE  110 
Relation  of  Memory  for  Digits  and  School  Standing  (Smedley) 


NUMBER 

AUDITORY 

VISUAL 

AGE 

TESTED 

Average  Standing 

Average  Stand- 

Average Stand- 

Average Stand- 

of Pupils  At  and 

ing  of  Pupils 

ing  of  Pupils  At 

ing  of  Pupils 

Above  Grade 

Below  Grade 

and  Above  Grade 

Below  Giade 

9 

99 

47.8 

39.7 

50.3 

41.9 

10 

88 

54.4 

42.7 

61.6 

46.2 

11 

91 

59.0 

48.6 

69.4 

53.3 

12 

92 

62.6 

52.2 

76.7 

66.0 

13 

110 

70.4 

64.3 

80.7 

72.3 

14 

116 

68.9 

62.6 

87.6 

74.9 

15 

94 

68.9 

62.4 

80.9 

75.0 

16 

75 

70.1 

65.8 

83.3 

78.8 

17 

56 

67.5 

62.7 

87.8 

81.2 

TEST  38:  MEMORY  TOB  BBRIAL  IMPBB88ION8     [563]    197 


100  </o 

95- 

90- 

86- 

80- 

75  •• 

70- 
65., 

60- 

55  ■ 

50  • 
45  H 

40  ii 


Grade 
IU  IV  V  VI  VII        VIII 


/ 

/ 
/ 
< 

/ 

i 

' 

/ 

/ 

\^y 

/ 
/ 

/ 

r 

r 

$>/ 

/ 

^ 

sy 

I ■•!<;.  74.     Mi.Moia   CAPACITY  or  L2-YXAB-OLD  PUPILS,  BY  ORADES 

(From  Smedley). 


198    [564]         ASSOCIATION;    LEARNING    AND    MEMORY 

TABLE  111 
Memory  Span  far  Digits  in   the  Feeble-Minded   (Johnson) 


Number  of  digits 

Repeated  correctly  by. 


3 

70 

4 
60 

5 

51 

6 

27 

7 
14 

Note — The  larger  groups  include  the  smaller  ones  at  their  right. 

s]»an  of  the  feeble-minded  and  of  normal  children  seems  to  be 
of  a  smaller  order  than  the  general  difference  in  intellectual 
ability  of  the  two  groups. 

Miss  Norsworthy  compared  normal  and  feeble-minded  chil- 
dren with  respect  to  memory  for  related  and  for  unrelated 
words.  Her  standards  for  normal  children  have  already  been 
reported  (Table  107)  :  the  relation  of  feeble-minded  to  normal 
efficiency  is  shown  in  Table  112.  The  figures  are  to  be  inter- 
preted simply:  five  per  cent,  of  the  feeble-minded  do  as  well 
with  the  related-word  test  as  do  50  per  cent,  of  normal  chil 
dren,  etc. 

Smedley  states  "that  the  boys  of  the  John  Worthy  School 
[incorrigibles,  defectives,  truants,  etc.]  are  lower  in.  memory 
power  than  are  the  pupils  of  the  other  schools,  and  this  dis- 
parity increases  with  age"  (70,  p.  59). 

Smith's  tests  with  epileptics  (73)  show  that,  in  the  auditory 
letter-span  test,  they  are  generally  inferior  to  normal  S's,  and 
in  particular,  that  they  make  nearly  three  times  as  many  errors 
of  insertion. 

TABLE  112 

Comparative  Memory  Capacity  of  Normal  and   Feeble-Minded  Children 

(.Norsworthy) 


ABOVE 
MEDIAN 


ABOVE 
— 1  P.  E. 


ABOVE 
—  2  P.  E. 


Normal  (both  tests) 

Feeble-minded,  in  related  words— 
Feeble-minded,  in  unrelated  words 


91 
30 
27 


TEST  38  :  MEMORY    FOB  SERIAL  IMPRESSION 8     [565]     l'.*!1 

(17)  Other  correlations.    Krueger  and  Spearman  found  do 

correlation  between  me rv  for  digits  (serial  visual  exposure) 

and  either  ability  to  add,  to  discriminate  pitch,  or  to  discrimi 
nate  dual  cutaneous  impressions. 

Memory  for  digits  and  memory  for  letters  were  correlated  to 
a  high  degree  in  Miss  Sharp's  S's,  while  memory  for  shorl  sen 
tences  correlated  besl  with  memory  for  letters. 

Smedley  studied  the  relation  of  memory  for  digits  and  ability 
to  spell,  and  concluded  thai  "while,  on  the  whole,  the  good 
spellers   have  decidedly  better  memory   power  than   tin-  bad 

spellers,  ye1  there  are  individuals  among  the  i r  spellers  who 

are  superior  in  memory  power,  and  individuals  among  the  besi 
spellers  whose  memory  power  is  scarcely  up  to  the  average  of 
their  age.  While  iliis  native  power  of  sense-memory  plays  an 
importanl  r61e,  it  is  by  no  means  the  only  factor  in  learning  to 
spell"  (70,  p.  61). 

Abelson  found  the  following  correlations  with  memory  tor 
words  in  his  study  of  88  backward  boys  and  43  backward 
girls:  interpretation  of  pictures,  hoys  0.30,  girls  <».::::; 
memory  for  sentences,  boys  0.66,  girls  0.42;  tapping,  hoys 
—0.08,  girls  i).:'.!);  memory  for  commissions,  boys  0.38,  girls  0.34. 

Brown  tested  several  groups,  mainly  pupils  11  to  12  years  old. 
and  found  the  following  correlations  with  his  tesl  of  learning 
nonsense  syllables:  completion  test.  O.L's.  0.37,  <».•"»-':  memory 
for  poetry,  <>.::s.  0.49;  speed  in  addition.  —0.13,  <>.  0.27;  accn 
racy  in  addition.      0.23,  <».  u.::i  ;  drawing.  0.39. 

Burt's  correlations,  so  far  as  they  apply  to  tests  mentioned 
in  this  work,  are  displayed  in  Table  L13,  Wyatt's  in  Table  11  I. 

Simpson  publishes  the  following  as  estimated  true  correla 

tions  with  memory  for  words  for  people  in  general:  completion 
lest.  O.S'J;  hard  opposites,  0.84;  easy  opposites,  0.65;  the  a-test, 
0.54;  memory  for  passages.  0.80;  adding,  0.39. 

In  the  half  do/. >n  rather  varied  tests  classed  together  1>.\ 
Heymans  and  Brugmans  the  intercorrelations  for  the  several 
tests  ranged  from  —0.34  to  +0.71.  The  pooling  together  oi 
the  results  of  lesis  classed  ;is  tests  of  memory,  imagination,  etc., 
\ielded  correlations  of  0.75  between  memory  and  imagination, 


200     [566]  ASSOCIATION;    LEARNING    AND    MEMORY 

TABLE  113 

Correlations  with  Amalgamated  Results  of  Immediate  Memory  Tests 

(After  Burt) 


RAW   CORRELATIONS 


RELATED  TEST 


Elem.  Sch. 


Prep.  Sch. 


CORRECTED   CORRELATIONS 


Elem.  Sch. 


Prep.  Sch. 


Spot   pattern 

Mirror  drawing ! 

Tapping 

Pitch  diserim 

Lifted  weights 


TABLE  114 

Correlations  Between  Memory  Tests  and  Other  Tests  (After  Wyatt) 


DELAYED  MEMORY 


IMMEDIATE  MEMORY   LETTER  SQUARES 


Analogies .70 

Completion  .72 

Word-building   .66 

Part-wholes .51 

Fables   .43 

Immediate  mem .71 

Letter  squares .15 


.64 
.61 
.57 

.52 
.41 

.25 


.28 
.03 
.00 
.09 
.31 
.25 


TABLE  115 

Recall  of  Different  Members  of  a  7-Terni  Series  (Binet  and  Henri) 


Place  in  series j        12  3 

Times  recalled  correctly—1    143      139      115 


4  5  ,        6  7 

111       122       117  !    140 


0.73  between  memory  and  concentration;,  0.54  between  memory 
and  intellect. 

(18)  Dependence  on  race.  From  studies  conducted  in  several 
Missouri  cities  Pyle  (61a)  concludes  that  "in  rote  memory  the 
negroes  have  a  much  better  memory  for  concrete  than  for 
abstract  words,  but  are  greatly   inferior  to  whites  in  both." 


TEST  38  :  MEMORY  FOR  SERIAL  IMPRESSIONS      [507]    201 

(19)  Miscellaneous  observations,  (a)  Reproduction  in  cor- 
rect order  is  more  difficult  than  mere  reproduction;  reproduc- 
tion is  more  difficult  than  recognition. 

(&)  The  first  and  the  last  terms  of  a  series  are  more  liable  to 
be  recalled  than  arc  the  middle  terms  i  Table  L15). 

(c)  In  word  tests,  certain  terms  are  often  found  to  have  a 
special  reproducibility,  evidently  by  attracting  special  attention 
in  some  way.  Thus,  Binet  and  Henri  found  that  the  word 
pupitre  (desk),  though  in  the  middle  of  a  series,  and  hence  un- 
favorably placed,  was  recalled  in  an  unusually  large  number  of 
cases. 

((/)  Errors  of  omission  are  more  common  than  errors  of  in- 
sertion or  errors  of  substitution — in  word  tests  with  school 
children,  4  times  more  frequent  (Binet  and  Henri). 

(c)  Wissler  calls  attention  to  the  perseverative  tendency 
mentioned  by  Meumann  and  others:  this  is  evinced  by  the  intro- 
duction, in  the  recall  of  a  given  series,  of  impressions  that  had 
been  used  in  an  earlier  series.  Wissler  found  this  type  of 
error  especially  common  in  college  seniors  and  mature  S'b  when 
trying  the  digit  test.  Meumann,  it  will  be  remembered,  consid- 
ered perseveration  in  the  word  test  as  an  index  of  poor  intelli- 
gence—-when  the  N's  knew  that  no  series  was  like  a  previous  one. 

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202    [568]        ASSOCIATION,   LEARNING  and   memory 

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(13)  B.  Bourdon,  Influence  de  l'age  sur  la  memoire  immediate. 
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mental  abilities.  BrJPs,  3:  1910,  296-322.  (Also  embodied  in  his  Use  of 
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(17)  C.  Burt,  Experimental  tests  of  higher  mental  processes.  JEPd, 
1:  1911,  93-112. 

(18)  C.  Burt  and  R.  C.  Moore,  The  mental  differences  between  the 
sexes.    JEPd,  1 :  1912.  273-284,  355-388. 

(19)  Mary  W.  Calkins,  A  study  of  immediate  and  of  delayed  recall 
of  the  concrete  and  of  the  verbal.    PsR,  5 :  1898,  451-6. 

(20)  D.  F.  Carpenter,  Mental  age  tests.    JEdPs,  4 :  1913,  538-544. 

(21)  W.  G.  Chambers,  Individual  differences  in  grammar  grade  chil- 
dren.   JEdPs,  1 :  1910,  61-75. 

(22)  J.  Cohn,  Experimentelle  Untersuchungen  iiber  das  Zusammen- 
wirken  des  akustisch-motorischen  u.  des  visuellen  Gediichtnisses.  ZPs, 
15:  1897,  161-183. 

(23)  J.  Cohn  und  J.  Dieffenbacher,  Untersuchungen  iiber  Gesch- 
lechts-,  Alters-  und  Begabungs-Unterschiede  bei  Schiilern.  Bcihefte  zur 
ZAngPs,  No.  2,  1911.    Pp.  213. 

(24)  H.  Ebbinghaus,  (a)  Ueber  eine  neue  Methode  zur  Priifung 
geistiger  Fiihigkeiten  in  ihrer  Anwendung  bei  Schulkindern.  ZPs,  13: 
1897,  401-457.  (6)  For  review  of  the  literature,  see  Orundzuge  der  Psy- 
chologic, I.  2d  ed.,  1905,  633-707. 

(25)  E.  Ebert  and  E.  Meumann,  Ueber  einige  Grundfragen  der 
Psych,  der  Uebungspbanomene  im  Bereiche  des  Gediichtnisses.  ArGsPs, 
4:^1905,  1-232. 

(26)  P.  Ephrussi,  Experimentelle  Beitrage  zur  Lehre  vom  Gediichtnis. 
Berlin,  1906.  Pp.  191. 

(27)  J.  Finzi,  Zur  Untersuchung  der  Auffassungsfahigkeit  und 
Merkfiihigkeit.    PsArb,  3 :  1900,  289-384. 

(28)  E.  FrankI,  Ueber  Vorstellungselemente  und  Aufmerksamkeit. 
Augsburg.  1905. 

(29)  H.  Fuchs  und  A.  Haggenmiiller,  Studien  und  Versuche  iiber  die 
Erlernung  der  Orthographie.    SmAbPdPs,  2:  1898. 

(30)  F.  Galton,  Supplementary  notes  on  'prehension'  in  idiots.  Mind, 
■  12 :  1887,  79-82. 

(31)  Eleanor  Gamble,  A  study  In  memorizing  various  materials  by 
the  reconstruction  method.    PsMon,  No.  43,  Sept.,  1909.     Pp.  210. 

(32)  C.  J.  Hawkins,  Experiments  on  memory  types.  PsR.  4:  1897. 
289-294. 


TEST  38 :  MEMOfil    I  « >H  BEBIAL  I  MI'UESSIONS     [500]    203 

(33)  V.  Henmon,  The  relation  between  mode  of  presentation  anil 
retention.     PsR,  19:  1912,  79-96. 

(34)  V.  Henri,  Education  de  la  un'moire.    AnPs,  N:  1901  I  L902),  1-48. 

(35)  G.  Ileynians  and  11.  Bruginans,  Intelllgenzprtlfungen  niit 
Studlerenden.    ZAngPs,  7:  1013,  317-331 

(30)     II.  Itscnner,  Lay's  Rechtschrleb-Reform.    Jahrbuch  des  i  • 
/.  icissensch,  Padagogik,  :'•-:  1900. 

(37)     J.Jacobs,  Experiments  on  'prehension.'    Mind,  12:  1887,  ''>-'.*. 

(3&j  <:.  I-:.  Johnson,  i  ontnoutlon  to  the  psychology  and  pedagogy  of 
feeble-minded  children.    PdBe,  3:  1895,  245-301,  especially  268-273. 

(39)  W.  F.  Jones,  An  experimental-critical  study  of  the  problem  "i 
grading  and  promotion.    PsCl,  5:  1911,  63-96,  99-120,  especially  102-11& 

(40)  A.  .lost.  Die  Assoclationsfestigkeil  in  ilm-i-  Abhangigkeit  ron 
der  Vertellung  der  Wiederholungen.    ZPs,  14:  1897,436-472. 

(41)  F.  Cemsies,  Ged&chtnisuntersuchungen  an  Bchiilern  ZPdPs,  2: 
1'.mm>,  21-30,  84-95. 

i  12)  E.  A.  Kirkpatrick,  An  experimental  stndy  of  memory.  PsR,  1: 
1894,  602-9. 

(43)  Emma  Kohnky,  Preliminary  study  of  the  effect  of  dental  treat- 
ment upon  the  physical  and  mental  efficiency  of  school  children.  JEdPs, 
4:  1913,  569-578 

(44)  E.  Kraepelin,  Der  psychologische  Versnch  in  der  Psychlatrle. 
PsArb,  1:  18%,  1-91,  especially  pp.  73  ff.  (See  also  G.  Aschaffenburg, 
i!>i,!.,  209-299.) 

(45)  E.  Kxueger  and  C.  Spearman,  Die  Korrelation  zwischen 
verschiedenen  geistigeu  LeistungsfShigkeiten.    ZPs,  44:  1907,  50-111. 

(46)  E.  Kuhlmann,  A  new  memory  apparatus.    PsR,  19:  1012,  74-78. 
i  17)     P.  Lapie,  Avances  et  retardes.    AnPs,  18:  1912,  233-270,  espe- 
cially 238-240. 

(48)  J.  Largnier  des  Baneels,  Sur  les  in£thodes  de  memorisation. 
AnPs,  8:  1901  (1902),  185-204. 

t49)  W.  A.  Lay,  Experimentelle  Didaktlk.  3d  ed.,  1910,  especially 
297-305,  351-370. 

(50)  M.  LiObsien,  Experimentelle  Untersuchungen  Qber  die  Gedacht- 
nissentwiekelung  be!  Schulklndern.    ZPs.  27:  T.mii.  34-76. 

(51)  E.  Meumann,  Intelligenzprlifungen  an  Kinderu  der  Volkss.hule. 
EPd,  1 :  1905.  35-101. 

(52)  E.  Meumann,  The  psychology  of  learning.  Eng.  transl.  New 
York,  1913.     Pp.  393. 

(53)  W.  McDougall,  On  a  new  method  for  the  study  of  concurrent 
mental  operations  and  of  mental  fatigue.  Br.JPs,  1 :  1905,  435-145.  espe- 
cially 430  f. 

(54)  G.  Mtiller  and  A.  Pilzeeker.  Experimentelle  Beitrage  zur  Lehre 
vom  Gediichtniss.    ZPs,  Erganzungsband,  1  :  1900,  1-28S. 

(55)  G.  Mtiller  and  F.  Schumann,  Experimentelle  Beitrage  zur  Dnter- 
suchung  des  Gedacbtnisses.    ZPs,  <;:  1894,  81-190,  lt.7  :,.:>.,.i. 

(56)  II.  Miinsterberg  and  J.  BIgbam,  Memory.     PsR,  I:  1904,  34-38 

(57)  A.  Netschajoff,  Experimentelle  Untersuchungen  Qber  die  Gedacht- 
nissentwickelung  hel  Schulkindern.     ZPs,  21:   1900,  321-351. 

(58)  Naomi  Norsworthy,  Tho  psychology  of  mentally  deficient  chil- 
dren  (Columbia  University  thesis).     New  York,   1906.     Pp.  111. 

(59)  M.  Offner,  Das  Gedihhtnis,  Berlin.    1909.     Pp.  238 

(GO)  A.  Pohlmann,  Experimentelle  Beltrfige  zur  Lehre  vom  Gedaeht- 
niss.  Berlin,  1900.  Pp.  191.  (For  full  review,  see  ZPs,  II:  1907,134- 
140.) 

(61)  W.  H.  Pyle.  The  examination  of  -school  children  Xew  York. 
1913.     Pp.  70,  especially  14-17. 


204    [570]  ASSOCIATION,    LEARNING   AND    MEMORY 

(61a)  W.  H.  Pyle,  The  mind  of  the  negro  child.  School  and  Society, 
1 :  1915,  357-360. 

(62)  J.  O.  Quantz,  Problems  in  the  psychology  of  reading.  PsMon, 
2:  1897  (No.  5).    Pp.  51. 

(63)  F.  Reuther,  Beitrage  zur  Gediichtnisforschung.  Psych,  Studien, 
1 :  1906,  4-101. 

(64)  C.  Hitter,  Ermiidnngsmessungen.     ZPs,  24:  1900,  401-444. 

(65)  M.  C.  Schuyten,  Snr  les  methodes  de  mensuration  de  la  fatigue 
des  ecoliers.    ArPs(f),  4:  1904,  113-128. 

(66)  J  Segal,  Ueber  den  Reproduktionstypus  und  das  Reprodukzieren 
von  Vorstellungen.    ArGsPs,  12 :  1908,  124-235. 

(67)  Stella  E.  Sharp,  Individual  psychology:  a  study  in  psychological 
method.    AmJPs,  10 :  1899,  329-391. 

(68)  B.  R.  Simpson,  Correlations  of  mental  abilities.  Columbia 
ConEd,  No.  53.    New  York,  1912.    Pp.  122. 

(69)  W.  G.  Sleight,  Memory  training ;  is  it  general  or  specific?  JEPd, 
1 :  1911,  51-54. 

(70)  F.  Smedley,  Report  dept.  child-study  and  pedagogic  investiga- 
tion (Chicago  Public  Schools).  No.  3,  1900-1901,  also  in  RepComEd, 
1902,  i.,  1115-1138. 

(71)  W.  G.  Smith,  The  relation  of  attention  to  memory.  Mind,  n.  s. 
4 :  1895,  47-73. 

(72)  W.  G.  Smith,  The  place  of  repetition  in  memory.  PsR,  3: 
1896,  21-31.  ,      .     ,  . 

(73)  W.  G.  Smith,  A  comparison  of  some  mental  and  physical  tests 
in  their  relation  to  epileptic  and  to  normal  subjects.  BrJPs,  1 :  1905, 
240-260. 

(74)  Carrie  R.  Squire,  Graded  mental  tests.  JEdPs,  3 :  1912,  363-380, 
430-443,  493-506,  especially  377-380. 

(75)  D.  Starch,  Transfer  of  training  in  arithmetical  operations. 
JEdPs,  2  :  1911,  306-310. 

(76)  A  v  Sybel,  Ueber  das  Zusammenwirken  verschiedener  Sinnes- 
gebiete  bei  Gedkchtnisleistungen.  ZPs,  53:  1909,  258-353.  (For  sum- 
mary see  PsBu,  7:  1910,  386-7.) 

(77)  E.  B.  Titchener,  Experimental  psychology,  Vol.  I.,  New  York, 

(78)  J.  J.  van  Biervliet,  L'gducation  de  la  niemoire  &  l'Scole.  RPhF, 
57 :  1904,  569-586. 

(79)  R  Wessely,  Zur  Frage  des  Auswendiglernens.  Neue  Jahr- 
biicher  f.  Plldagogik,  8:  1905,  297-309,  373-386. 

(80)  W.  H.  Winch,  Immediate  memory  in  school  children.  BrJPs,  1 : 
1904,  127-134,  and  2 :  1906,  52-57. 

(81)  W  H  Winch,  (c)  The  transfer  of  improvement  in  memory  in 
school  children.  BrJPs,  2:  1908,  284-293.  (ft)  Same,  continued,  3:  1910, 
386-405. 

(82)  W  H.  Winch,  Mental  fatigue  in  day-school  children  as  measured 
by  immediate  memory.  JEdPs,  3 :  1912,  18-28,  74-82. 

(83)  C.  Wissler,  The  correlation  of  mental  and  physical  tests.  Ps 
Mon,  3 :  1901,  No.  6.     Pp.  62. 

(84)  S.  Wyatt,  The  quantitative  investigation  of  higher  mental 
processes.    BrJPs,  6:  1913,  109-133. 

(85)  C.  S.  Yoakum,  An  experimental  study  of  fatigue.  PsMon,  11 : 
1909,  No.  46.    Pp.  131. 


rBSi'39:  memoby.  fob  idlas,  [  571 J  2U5 

TEST  39 

Memory  for  ideas:  'Logical'  memory.— This  test  differs  from 
the  preceding  tests  of  memory  in  two  respects:  in  the  first 
place,  connected,  meaningful  material  is  nsed  instead  of  a  series 
of  disparate  impressions;  in  the  second  place,  the  reproduction 
that  is  demanded  is  primarily  a  reproduction  of  ideas,  nol  an 
exact,  verbatim  reproduction  of  the  original  presentation.  In 
other  words,  this  test,  t<>  use  currenl  phraseology,  measures 
'logical,'  or  siit. stance'  memory,  instead  of  'rote,'  or  'mechanical' 
memory. 

While,  in  principle,  the  attitude  taken  by  8  toward  the  teal  of  memory 

for  ideas  is  distinctly  different  from  that  taken  toward  the  test  of  mem- 
ory for  discrete  Impressions,  yet,  in  practise,  it  is  not  always  possible  to 
differentiate  these  attitudes  in  the  tests  as  actually  administered.  Thus, 
Binet  and  Henri,  and  after  them,  Miss  Sharp,  conducted  tests  of  "memory 
for  sentences."  In  these  tests,  the  sentences  ranged  from  short  to  long, 
and  from  easy  to  difficult.  A  short,  easy  sentence,  c.  g.,  a  sentence  of 
11  words,  Is  almost  invariably  interpreted  by  8  as  a  straightforward  test 
of  verbal  memory,  and  the  reproduction  is  at  bottom  a  recall  in  verbal 
(mainly  auditory  verbal)  terms.  On  the  other  hand,  a  long,  difficult 
sent. 'lire,  r.  <;.,  ;1  sent,  nee  of  8G  words,  when  heard  or  read  but  once, 
must  be  reproduced  in  substance,  not  verbatim,  and  the  recall,  for  most 
S's  at  least,  is  a  recall  by  meaning,  a  reproduction  of  the  'gist-  of  the 
material  presented. 

It  is  evidently  better  to  keep  separate  these  two  different  forms  of 
memory  test,  with  their  two  correspondingly  different  attitudes.  The 
material  of  the  present  tests  is,  accordingly,  sufficiently  lengthy  t<>  pre- 
clude verbatim  recall.  Memory  for  sentences  of  progressive  length  has 
been  treated  in  Test  38. 

The  purposes  of  the  test  are  similar  to  those  of  other  memory 
tests,  viz.:  to  determine  individual  differences  in  memory  effi- 
ciency as  related  to  sex.  age,  training,  native  ability,  etc.  As 
in  those  tests,  too,  the  effect  of  different  methods  of  presenting 
the  material,  or  of  different  forms  of  material,  may  he  studied, 
and  immediate  may  be  compared  with  deferred  reproduction. 
The  results  of  the  test  may  also  be  correlated  with  the  results 
of  other  tests,  particularly  with  the  tests  of  rote  memory  just 
described.  Among  others,  the  following  examples  ate  char- 
acteristic of  these  various  uses  of  the  logical  memory  test.  In 
the  Binet-Simon  series  of  L908  the  Storj  of  tin'  Fire  was  intro- 
duced at  the  8th  and  9th  years.    Wissler  used  a  Logical  memory 


206    [572J         ASSOCIATION,   LEARNING   and    memory 

test  in  his  series  applied  to  Columbia  freshmen,  Terman  in  hi* 
comparative  study  of  bright  and  dull  boys,  Winch  in  the  inves- 
tigation of  fatigue  and  of  transfer  of  training,  Simpson  in  his 
comparison  of  competent  and  incompetent  adults.  The  Marble 
Statue  test,  which  the  author  derived  from  Shaw's  study  of 
memory  in  school  children,  has  been  applied  by  Pyle  to  several 
hundred  children  and  adults  for  the  purpose  of  establishing 
age  and  sex  norms.  Aall  used  an  anecdote,  much  longer  than 
those  here  prescribed,  as  the  material  for  an  interesting  study 
of  sex  and  individual  difference,  particularly  as  affected  by 
immediate  or  deferred  reproduction.  Perhaps  the  most  elabo 
rate  investigation  of  "memory  for  connected  trains  of  thought" 
is,  however,  that  of  Henderson,  who  administered  a  series  of 
tests  to  over  200  8%  ranging  from  10-year-old  Sth-grade  chil- 
dren to  adult  students  in  the  university.  Henderson's  work 
forms  the  basis  of  the  tests  which  are  here  prescribed,  with  some 
modifications  suggested  by  the  use  of  the  test  by  the  author  for 
several  years  as  a  class  exercise. 

Materials.— Watch.  Three  printed  forms — The  Marble 
Statue,  Cicero,  and  The  Dutch  Homestead. 

The  first  of  these  is  taken  from  the  appendix  of  Shaw's  article,  and 
was  apparently  used  by  him  for  subsidiary  tests.  The  second  and  third 
are  Nos.  2  and  4  of  the  five  texts  used  by  Henderson.  If  E  wishes  to 
extend  the  test  by  using  more  difficult  material,  he  may  employ  Hender- 
son's No.  5— a  selection  entitled  "The  Stages  in  the  Development  of 
Human  Theory,"  from  Comte's  Positive  Philosophy.  If  the  Marble 
Statue  proves  too  difficult  or  uninteresting  for  very  young  8%  E  may 
employ  to  advantage  the  text  proposed  by  Binet  and  Simon  (Wallin's 
arrangement)  or  the  story  of  Mr.  Lincoln  and  the  Pig  (from  Clyde  and 
Wallace,  Through  the  Year,  Book  2,  Silver,  Burdett  &  Co.). 

Three  Houses  Burned 

(From  the  1908  Binet-Siraon  tests,  revised  by  Wallin) 
(51  words,  20  ideas) 

New  York,  J  September  5th.  |  A  fire  |  last  night  |  burned  | 
three  houses  |  in  Water  Street.  |  It  took  some  time  |  to  put  it 
out.  |  The  loss  |  was  fifty  thousand  dollars,  |  and  seventeen 
families  j  lost  their  homes.  |  In  saving  |  a  girl  |  who  was 
asleep  |  in  a  bed,  |  a  fireman  J  was  burned  |  on  the  hands. '  | 


DEBT 39:  MEMORY  I  ult  IDB  [573  J    207 

How  Mb.  Lincoln  Helped  the  Pig 
(131  words,  42  ideas) 

"One  dii.\       Mr.  Lincoln  |  was  out  riding.         \-  he  passed 
along  (he  road,  j  he  s;iu   .i  pig      sinking  |  into  a  mnd-hole. 
Poor  |  piggy  would  climb  |  pari  way     ap  the  Blippery     bank, 
then  down  lie  would  tall  again.  | 

•1  suppose  I  should  gel  down  |  and  help  |  thai  pig,'  thought 
Mr.  Lincoln,  "lint  1  have  on  my  new  suit,  and  ii  will  !"•  quite 
spoil,. d  if  1  do  so.  |  1  think  I'll  lei  him  gel  OU1  Hi"  best  wax 
he  can.'  | 

He  rod.'  on.    |    When  nearly  |  two  |  miles  away,  |  he  turned 
andcameback.  |   Not  minding  the  new  j  clothes,    heatooped, 
and  taking  piggy  in  his  arms,  [  he  dragged  him   I  out  |  of  the 
mud.  j 

The  new     suit     was  quite  |  spoiled,  |  hut  Mr.  Lincoln     said 
he  had  taken  a  pain  |  out  of  his  mind/'  | 

Method. — Provide  8  with  paper  and  pencil.  Explain  the 
nature  of  the  test,  as  follows:  "I  am  going  to  read  you  smiir 
thing  to  see  how  well  you  can  remember  it  afterward.  You 
must  pa.\  careful  attention,  as  I  shall  read  it  bu1  once  As 
soon  as  I  have  finished,  take  your  pencil  and  write  as 
much  of  the  story  as  you  can  remember.  If  you  can  remember 
ii  in  just  the  words  you  heard,  use  those  words.  bu1  if  you  can't 
do  thai,  tell  in  your  own  words,  as  well  as  you  can.  what  it  was 
that  I  read  to  you." 

Read  the  passage,  including  the  title,  with  most  careful 
enunciation,  and  with  proper  attention  to  expression.  The  rate 
of  reading  should  he  somewhat  slower  than  in  ordinary  read- 
ing—say  a  full  minute  for  the  Cicero  test.  Allow  8  ample 
time  for  writing,  then  ask  him  to  underline  each  word  in  his 
reproduction  that  he  feels  sure  is  exactly  the  same  as  the 
original  passage.1 


'This  test  lends  itself  easily  to  the  group  method.  The  usual  precau- 
tions should  be  taken  to  avoid  disturbance  and  communication.  E  may 
s;ive  himself  mucb  labor  by  asking  cadi  8  to  count  the  total  number  <»i' 

words  lie  lias  written,  then  the  total  number  of  words  be  baa  underlined. 
With  mature  S'S,  1'  may  also  reread  very  slowly  the  original  text,  and 
let  each  8  cheek  up  the  total  number  of  Ideas  correctly  reproduced,  i.  < .. 
represented,  whether  verbatim  or  by  equivalent  phrases,  in  his  reproduc- 
tion. The  division  of  each  text  into  its  constituent  'ideas'  is  Indicated 
below. 


208    [574]        ASSOCIATION,   LEARNING  and   memory 

Variations  of  Method. —  (1)  Supply  8  with  the  printed  text. 
Inform  him  that  he  is  to  have  2  min.  to  read  the  passage.  As- 
sure him  that  this  time  is  ample  to  read  it  over  carefully  more 
than  once.  Direct  him  to  read  the  passage  straight  through 
twice,  and  then  use  any  time  that  remains  in  studying  it  as  he 
wishes. 

(2)  Defer  the  reproduction  to  any  desired  time  after  the 
reading,  e.  g.,  10  min.,  24  hours,  1  week,  4  weeks.  Or  require 
an  immediate  reproduction,  followed  later,  at  one  or  more  of 
the  intervals  just  suggested,  by  a  second  or  by  a  third  reproduc- 
tion.2 Conduct  these  deferred  trials  in  the  same  manner,  as 
far  as  directions  to  underline,  etc.,  are  concerned,  as  in  the 
first  trial. 

Treatment  of  Data. — The  simplest  plan  for  scoring  the  data 
of  this  test  is  that  used  by  Terman  and  by  Wissler,  who  merely 
graded  the  papers  on  a  scale  of  5  (or  of  10)  for  a  perfect  re 
production — perfect  in  the  sense  of  a  reproduction  of  all  the 
ideas  of  the  original  text,  whether  in  terms  identical  with,  or 
merely  equivalent  to,  the  original. 

For  ordinary  purposes,  the  author  has  found  it  serviceable  to 
score  the  papers  for  the  following  points :  (1)  number  of  words 
written,  (2)  number  of  words  underlined,  (3)  percentage  of 
underlined  fcords  that  are  correctly  underlined,  (4)  number  of 
ideas  ('details'  in  Henderson's  terminology)  that  have  been 
reproduced,  whether  exactly  or  in  equivalent  phrases.  To 
these  may  be  added,  if  desired,  (5)  number  of  ideas  wrongly 
inserted.  If  but  a  single  score  is  to  be  made,  the  fourth  is 
obviously  the  one  to  be  used,  since  the  task  assigned  to  8  is  to 
give  as  many  as  possible  of  the  ideas  of  the  text.3 

The  second  and  subsequent  reproductions  are  scored  in  the 
same  manner  as  the  first.    Retention  is  then  measured,  follow- 


2It  is  better,  on  the  whole,  to  give  no  intimation  of  the  intent  to  demand 
a  second  reproduction.  Some  S's  may  compare  notes  after  the  first 
reproduction,  but  if  the  subsequent  trial  is  announced  beforehand, 
coupled,  as  it  ought  to  be,  with  the  request  not  to  think  of  the  test  in 
the  interim,  the  request  is  more  apt  to  work  as  a  counter-suggestion,  so 
that  many  &'s  will  test  their  recall  of  the  passage,  and  otherwise  furbish 
up  the  memories  during  the  interval. 

"Consult  Aall,  Sharp  or  Henderson  for  more  elaborate  methods  of  treat- 
ing data,  particularly  for  devices  for  qualitative  analysis. 


rfisi  39:  ml.mouy  bob  idb  1375]  209 

ing  Shaw  and  Henderson,  by  computing  the  percentage  of  loss 
between  these  and  the  first  reproduction.  Occasional  cases  of 
improvement  in  the  later  reproductions  are  rated  as  a  negative 

loss. 

To  ascertain  the  'idea-score,'  fif's  reproduction  must  be  com 
pared,  step  by  step,  with  the  standard  divisions  of  the  original 

text  into  ideas.4 

Tue  Marble  Statue 
(1GG  words,  67  ideas) 

A  young  man  |  worked  j  years  j  to  carve  |  a  white  j  marble  j 
statue  |  of  a  beautiful  |  girl.  |  She  grew  prettier  |  day  by  day.  ] 
Be  began  to  love  the  statue  |  so  well  that  |  one  day  |  he  said  to 
it:  |  "I  would  give  |  everything  |  in  the  world  |  if  you  would  be 
alive  |  ami  be  my  wife."  |  Just  then  |  the  clock  struck  j  twelve,! 
and  the  cold  [  stone  began  to  grow  warm,  [  the  cheeks  red,  j  the 
hair  brown,  J  the  lips  to  move.  |  She  stepped  down,  |  and  he 
had  his  wish.  |  They  lived  happily  |  together  |  for  years,  ]  and 
three  |  beautiful  |  children  were  born.  |  One  day  |  he  was  very 
tired,  |  and  grew  J  so  angry,  j  without  cause,  |  that  he  struck  her.  | 
she  wept,  j  kissed  |  each  child  I  and  her  husband,  |  stepped 
back  |  upon  the  pedestal,  |  and  slowly  [  grew  cold,  |  pale  ]  and 
stiff,  |  closed  her  eyes,  |  and  when  the  clock  J  struck  |  midnight, | 
she  was  a  statue  j  of  pure  |  white  |  marble  |  as  she  had  been  | 
years  before,  j  and  could  not  hear  j  the  sobs  [  of  her  husband  ' 
and  children. 

Cicero 
(125  words,  64  ideas) 

"Cicero,  |  the  greatest  j  of  the  Roman  |  orators,  |  was  born  j 
at  Arpinum,  |  an  obscure  |  country  |  town.  |  His  family  |  was 
of  the  middle  class  |  only,  |  and  without  wealth,  j  yet  he  rose  j 
rapidly  |  through  the  ranks  |  of  Roman  |  official  service  |  until 
at  the  age  |  of  forty-six  |  he  became  |  consul.   |    In  oratory  |  he 

■The  scoring  for  ideas  for  these  three  passages  is  taken,  with  a  few 
minor  changes,  from  Shaw  and  from  Henderson.  For  a  division  of  the 
second  and  third  texts  into  topics  and  BUD-topics  as  well  as  Into  Ideas, 
the  reader  may  consult  Henderson  (6,  pp.  29-30). 


210    [576]         ASSOCIATION;   LEARNING   and   memory 

is  I  by  universal  consent  |  placed  side  by  side  |  with  Demos 
thenes,  |  or  at  least  |  close  after  him.  |  He  surpassed  j  the 
great  |  Attic  [  orator  |  in  brilliancy  |  and  variety,  j  but  lacked  | 
his  moral  |  earnestness  |  and  consequent  |  impressiveness. 
He  could  be  |  humorous,  ]  sarcastic,  |  pathetic,  |  ironical,  | 
satirical,  |  and  when  he  was  malignant  |  his  mouth  was  |  most  j 
foul  |  and  his  bite  \  most  |  venomous.  |  His  delivery  |  was  im- 
passioned |  and  fiery,  |  his  voice  |  strong,  |  full,  |  and  sweet,  \ 
his  figure  |  tall,  |  graceful,  |  and  impressive." 

The  Dutch  Homestead 
(180  words,  94  ideas) 

"It  was  |  one  |  of  those  spacious  |  farm-  |  houses,  [  with  high-  j 
ridged,  |  but  lowly  |  sloping  |  roofs,  |  built  |  in  the  style  | 
handed  down  from  |  the  first  j  Dutch  |  settlers,  |  the  low  |  pro- 
jecting |  eaves  j  forming  a  piazza  |  along  the  front  |  capable  ] 
of  being  closed  up  |  in  bad  weather.  [  Under  this  [  were  hung  j 
flails,  |  harness,  |  various  |  utensils  |  of  husbandry,  j  and  nets  \ 
for  fishing  |  in  the  neighboring  |  river.  |  Benches  |  were  built  J 
along  the  side  |  for  summer  use ;  |  and  a  great  |  spinning  wheel  I 
at  one  end,  |  and  a  churn  |  at  the  other,  |  showed  |  the  various  | 
uses  |  to  which  this  |  important  |  porch  |  might  be  devoted.  | 
From  this  piazza  |  one  might  enter  |  the  hall,  |  which  formed  | 
the  center  |  of  the  mansion  |  and  the  usual  |  place  of  residence.  | 
Here  |  rows  |  of  resplendent  |  pewter  |  ranged  |  on  a  long  | 
dresser  |  dazzled  |  his  eyes.  |  In  one  corner  |  stood  a  huge  | 
bag  |  of  wool,  |  ready  |  to  be  spun ;  |  in  another  |  a  quantity  |  of 
linsey-woolsey,  |  just  \  from  the  loom ;  |  ears  |  of  Indian  j  corn  | 
and  strings  |  of  dried  |  apples  |  and  peaches  |  hung  |  in  gay  | 
festoons  |  along  the  walls,  |  mingled  |  with  the  gaud  |  of  red  | 
peppers." 

Results. —  (1)  Norms.  Performance  with  the  Marble  Statue 
selection  has  been  investigated  by  Pyle  (group  method,  written 
reproduction)  with  the  results  shoAvn  in  Table  116.  The  au- 
thor's results  for  college  students  with  the  Dutch  Homestead 
selection  are  shown  in  Table  117,  while  some  idea  of  the  dis- 


ilm  I:'.'.*     MEM  OKI   I  OB  IDEAS 


S771    'ill 


tribution  of  performance  for  the  Cicero  selection  with  college 
students  (mostly  Sophomores)  is  given  by  Table  118.  In  all 
of  these  tables,  and  particularly  in  those  referring  to  college 
students,  evidence  is  given  to  show  the  unexpectedly  large  in 
dividual  variation  in  memory  for  ideas  that  prevails  even 
within  a  group  of  S'a  of  apparently  similar  attainments. 


TABLE  L16 

Marble  Statm   Test,  Scores  "by  ig\  and  Bern  (Pyle) 


SEX 

8 

9 

10    J  11      12 

13       14       15       16       17 

18      ADULT 

Male 

Female  _ 

Cases 

A.  D 

Cases 

A.  D._ 

102  us 

'?A  3  28.7 

6.7  9.1 

89     158 
28.5  31.0 
11.3  9.4 

142  149  156 
30.0  32.9  35.1 

6.7  5.6   7.4 

138  156  191 
33.5  36.4  38.1 

6.8  7.7   7.2 

163  129  89 
36.8  36.1  36.5 

6.3   7.0  6.7 

164  146  99 
38.5  39.0  39.1 

7.1   7.5   6.3 

60    45    32 
34.4  34.6  36.9 
5.6  8.7   6.0 

94    81    48 
37.3  36.6  37.8 
5.1   6.9  4.4 

65 
38.3 
7.0 

80 
40.1 
5.9 

TABLE  117 
Dutch  Homestead  Test.    Words  Written  and  Underlined  {Whipple) 


FIRST  TRIAL.   NO    INTERVAL 

SECOND  TRIAL.   24  HOURS 
LATER 

Total  Words 

Words  Under- 
lined 

t   .   i  wr      i        Words  Under- 
Total  Words              ,ined 

Average,  9  men 

Average,  22  women.. 

Maximal   records 

Minimal  records 

80.4 

95.5 

127.0 

45.0 

48.0 

38.8 

102.0 

4.0 

83.0 

99.6 

138.0 

52.0 

38.4 

34.1 

66.0 

9.0 

TABLE  118 
Cicero  Test.    Distribution  of  36  ColUujc  stud'  nts  (Whipple) 


2d  six 


5th  six 


Words  written—   11596 
Correct  ideas !    46-37 


95  88         S4-75    !     74-66 
36-34        32-28        28-25 


65*0 
25-21 


20-7 


212    [578]        ASSOCIATION,   LEARNING  and   memory 

(2)  Dependence  on  age.  Binet  and  Simon  put  the  reproduc- 
tion of  2  items  from  the  Story  of  the  Fire  as  standard  for  8 
years,  6  items  as  standard  for  9  years.  The  results  reported 
by  Vos,  who  read  to  boys  and  girls  9  to  14  years  old  a  story 
containing  40  'ideas'  and  called  for  reproductions  3  days  later, 
show  rather  unusual  variations  from  year  to  year,  despite  the 
fact  that  some  800  $'s  are  represented :  report  is  declared  to  be 
good  at  9,  best  at  10,  thence  deteriorating  decidedly  to  13,  but 
improving  at  14  years.  The  elaborate  studies  of  Shaw  and  of 
Henderson  are  also  somewhat  difficult  to  interpret.  It  appears 
evident,  however,  that  a  distinction  must  be  made  between 
efficiency  in  the  first  reproduction  and  efficiency  in  subsequent 
reproductions.  If  the  first  be  termed  learning  capacity,  and  the 
second  retentive  capacity,  and  if  the  latter  be  measured  in 
terms  of  the  proportion  of  the  first  reproduction  that  is  retained 
in  the  second  (or  later)  reproduction,  then  adults  may  be 
shown  to  surpass  children  in  learning  capacity,  but  not  in 
retentive  capacity. 

Thus,  in  Shaw's  rather  difficult  324-word  story,  the  learning 
capacity  of  boys  increased,  from  the  3d  to  the  9th  grade,  from 
17  to  42  per  cent.,  that  of  girls  from  18  to  43  per  cent.  High- 
school  boys  averaged  only  40  per  cent.,  high-school  girls  about 
47  per  cent.  Shaw's  university  students  did  no  better,  while 
Henderson's  summer  session  students  were  inferior  to  his  15 
and  16-year-old  school  children.  In  short,  then,  logical,  like 
rote  memory  appears,  when  measured  by  the  first  reproduction, 
to  be  at  its  best  near  puberty.  This  conclusion  agrees  entirely 
with  the  averages  secured  by  Pyle  for  children  8  to  18  years 
old  and  for  adults  (Table  116).  His  boys  reached  their  maxi- 
mal ability  at  13,  his  girls  at  12  years. 

TABLE  119 

Average  Percentage  of  Loss  in  Third  Reproduction  (After  4  Weeks) 

(Henderson) 


AGE 

ADULTS 

16 

15 

14 

13 

12 

11 

10 

Percentage  of  loss 14          8 

13 

15 

14 

12 

10 

10 

TEST  39:  MEMORY  FOR  IDI  ir,~!']    213 

Turning  to  the  later  reproductions,  Shaw  and  Benderson 
(Table  119)  agree  that  younger  fif'a  have  as  good  retentive 
capacity  as  do  adults. 

(3)  Sex  differences  in  this  test,  us  in  the  rote-memory  teat, 
are  in  favor  of  girls.  The  difference  is  indicated  clearly  in  tin- 
author's  data  for  college  students  (Table  117),  and  similar 
differences  are  reported  by  Shaw,  who  found  the  growth  of 
memory  for  ideas  to  be  faster  in  girls  than  in  boys,  and  the 
average  performance  of  girls  to  be  some  1  per  rent,  better  than 
that  of  hoys.  W'issler's  records  for  Columbia  freshmen  show 
an  average  of  44.5  per  cent.,  P.E.  11.1,  for  men.  and  48.2  per 
cent.,  P.E.  13.2,  for  women.  Pyle's  averages  reveal  the  supe- 
riority  of  girls  at  every  age  from  8  to  maturity.  Schramm's 
comparison  of  16  men  and  16  women  i  students  at  Freiburg 
University)  shows  a  slight  superiority  for  the  women,  though 
the  differences  do  not  exceed  their  probable  error.  The  only 
exceptions  to  this  trend  in  favor  of  superiority  of  females  seem 
to  appear  in  the  work  of  Vos  and  of  Aall.  The  latter  states 
that  the  reproductions  of  women  are  usually  fuller,  but  those 
of  men  are  more  compact,  'meatier/  and  betray  greater  plastic 
power,  greater  originality  in  formulation. 

(4)  Dependence  On  time-interval.  The  insertion  of  a  time- 
interval  between  presentation  and  reproduction  has  much  less 
effect  upon  memory  for  ideas  than  upon  memory  for  discrete 
impressions.  Table  117  shows  that,  if  a  second  reproduction 
is  called  for  one  day  after  the  first,  the  average  8  actually 
writes  more  words.  The  words  in  the  later  reproduction  are, 
however,  less  exact  copies  of  the  original  text,  and  there  is  a 
tendency  to  insert  extraneous  material,  so  that  fewer  words 
are  underlined,  and  there  is  a  slight  net  reduction  in  the  num- 
ber of  ideas  reproduced.  In  the  author's  tests,  this  reduction 
was  but  'A  per  cent,  at  the  end  of  one  week.  Table  11!>  shows 
that  an  interval  of  4  weeks  produces  a  loss  of  but  8  to  15  per 
cent. 

Similar  conclusions  are  reached  by  Aall,  who  compared  the 
reproductions  of  a  lengthy  story  directly  after  hearing  it  and  48 
hours  later.  The  latter  reports  were  on  the  whole  poorer — moro 
omissions  and  more  'falsification.'     They  are  shown  to  Mean' 


214    [580]         ASSOCIATION,    LEARNING    AND    MEMORY 

strongly  on  the  first  reports,  often  to  become  more  verbose  and 
less  precise,  and  sometimes  matters  that  were  correctly  left 
rather  vague  in  the  first  report  become  erroneously  'logicized' 
into  explicit  and  particularized  statements,  which  are  actually 
possible,  but  incorrect  as  reports.  On  the  other  hand,  as  Aall 
points  out,  there  exists  a  sort  of  'after-memory'  such  that  cer- 
tain details  which  are  forgotten  or  at  least  unmentioned  in  the 
immediate  reproduction  come  to  light  correctly  in  the  delayed 
one.  The  influence  of  time-interval  also  appears  to  oper- 
ate differently  on  different  forms  of  material;  for  instance, 
names  of  places  are  lost  sooner  than  memories  of  objects. 

It  is  a  matter  of  special  interest  to  note  that  the  relative 
standing  of  £'s  remains  practically  the  same  in  tests  conducted 
with  immediate,  and  with  deferred  recall.  Similarly,  those 
who  memorize  a  passage  of  a  given  length  in  quick  time  are  not 
found  to  be  at  a  disadvantage  in  subsequent  recall  (see  Ogden 
and  Pyle,  12),  though  the  individual  differences  are  usually 
found  to  be  less  in  subsequent  recall  than  in  original  speed  of 
learning.  It  follows  that,  so  far  as  this  test  goes  at  least,  the 
popular  notion  "easy  come,  easy  go"  is  not  borne  out  by  expe- 
rimental evidence.  Henderson  found  that  this  correlation 
between  learning  capacity  and  retentive  capacity  was  brought 
out  better  in  scoring  for  ideas  than  in  scoring  for  words. 

(5)  Dependence  on  method  of  presentation.  When  a  single 
hearing  is  compared  with  reading  done  by  8  (3  min.),  the  for- 
mer is  found  to  be  nearly  as  good  as  the  latter  for  immediate 
reproduction,  but  the  latter  to  be  much  more  effective  than  the 
former  for  deferred  reproduction. 

(6)  Dependence  on  practise.  Baade,  who  scored  the  reports 
made  by  196  girls,  aged  12-13  years,  upon  what  was  said  by  an 
instructor  in  the  course  of  a  series  of  demonstrations  in  physics, 
found  that  under  those  conditions  there  was  no  demonstrable 
improvement  in  their  work,  either  from  the  succession  of  the 
three  sets  of  demonstrations  or  from  the  repetition  of  the 
demonstrations.  Nevertheless,  the  work  of  other  investigators 
gives  little  doubt  that  practise  will  improve  memory  for  ideas, 
as  it  will  improve  nearly  every  form  of  psychophysical  activity. 
Special  training  thus  accounts,  in  all  probability,  for  the  high 


TEST  39:  MEMORY  FOR  IDEAS  1«">S1]    216 

scores  (52  as  over  against  40  to  47  per  cent.)  reached  by  the 
pupils  of  Miss  Aiken's  school''  in  comparison  w  ith  the  work  of 
Worcester  high  school  children. 

Winch  (21)  has  investigated  the  possibility  «>f  transfer  of 
practise,  and  concludes  that  "improvement  through  practise 
in  rote  memory  for  things  with  and  without  meaning  is  fol- 
lowed by  improvement  in  substance  for  stories."  He  argue*. 
thai  this  transfer  may  take  place  despite  the  circumstance  thai 
correlations  between  rote  and  Bubstance  memory  arc  some 
times,  as  in  his  own  work,  of  a  low  or  even  doubtful  character. 
Winch  (23)  has  also  investigated  the  transfer  of  practise  in 
substance  memory  to  efficiency  in  productive  imagination.  He 
concludes  that  "children  practised  in  substance  memory  for 
stories  become  thereby  more  proficient  in  the  invention  of 
stories.  The  improvement  is  not  due  to  the  insertion  of  parts 
of  the  content  of  the  memorized  stories  within  the  invented 
stories,  but  to  some  community  of  function  less  atomistic." 
An  exception  appeared,  however,  in  portions  of  his  experi- 
mental work,  which  leads  him  to  add  that  ''children  practised 
in  substance  memory  up  to  the  fatigue  point,  which  is  taken 
here  to  mean  the  point  at  which  consecutive  exercises  cease  to 
produce  improvement,  are  thereby  prejudicially  affected  so 
far  as  their  power  to  invent  stories  is  concerned."  These 
'fatigue-effects,'  he  says,  "appear  to  be  temporary,  whilst  prac- 
tise effect  (improvement  through  practise)  appears  to  have 
considerable  duration." 

(7)  Dependence  on  fatigue.  Although  it  is  generally  con- 
ceded that  one  of  the  commoner  symptoms  of  mental  fatigue 
is  slowness  or  uncertainty  of  recall  of  ideas,  no  one  but  Winch 

22  i  appears  to  have  used  the  logical  memory  test  in  this  con- 
nect ion.  Winch's  test  was  limited  to  a  group  of  boys  who  were 
studying  at  an  evening  school.  They  were  given  10  minutes  to 
memorize  the  substance  of  passages  of  some  150  words  and 
tested  by  the  method  of  equivalent  groups  at  9  and  at  about 
9.30  P.  M.,  with  the  result  that  some  28  per  cent,  of  difference 
was  revealed.     Since  tests   in  day  schools  had  shown   prac- 


"For  an  account  of  the  special  training  given  to  Mi^s  Aiken's  pupils, 
see  Test  25  and  references  thereto. 


216    [582]         ASSOCIATION,    LEARNING   AND    MEMORY 

tically  no  difference  between  children  working  at  noon  and  at 
4.30  P.  M.,  Winch  argues  that  children  who  take  evening  school 
work  after  a  day's  work  at  various  occupations  exhibit  a  very 
rapid  and  pronounced  susceptibility  to  mental  fatigue. 

(8)  Dependence  on  length  of  text.  The  number  of  words  re- 
produced after  one  hearing  increases,  though  not  in  direct  pro- 
portion, with  the  length  of  the  passage  heard  (Binet  and 
Henri). 

(9)  Dependence  on  portion  of  text.  If  the  original  passage 
be  divided  into  3ds  or  4ths  (or  even,  if  long,  into  8ths),  it  will 
be  found  that,  on  the  average,  the  reproduction  of  any  one  of 
these  portions  is  inferior  to  the  one  that  precedes  it  and  supe- 
rior to  the  one  that  follows  it.  Thus,  Shaw's  story,  on  division 
into  4  parts,  was  found  to  be  reproduced  in  the  amounts  52, 
34,  31,  and  28  per  cent.,  respectively. 

What  may  be  regarded  as  a  test  of  logical  memory  was  made 
by  Dell  with  30  boys  who  listened  to  an  hour-and-a-half  lecture 
upon  material  in  Punch,  which  was  illustrated  by  80  lantern 
slides.  The  boys  were  asked  8  days  later  to  indicate  which 
slides  they  recalled.  The  first  15  slides  were,  on  the  average, 
recalled  by  11.2  boys,  slides  47-59  by  3.8,  slides  60-74  by  3.5, 
and  slides  75-80  by  4.8  boys.  These  figures  certainly  seem  to 
demonstrate  a  decidedly  better  recall  of  slides  in  the  first  por- 
tion of  the  lecture,  with  a  questionable  slight  rise  at  the  end  of 
the  lecture.  Dell,  however,  believes  that  there  were  at  work 
other  causes  than  simply  the  dependency  of  memory  on  different 
positions  in  the  lecture. 

(10)  Reliability.  The  work  of  Simpson,  Winch  and  others 
shows  that  the  logical  memory  test  has  an  acceptable  degree 
of  reliability.  Winch  obtained  coefficients  of  0.65  and  0.68 
between  single  trials;  Simpson,  coefficients  of  0.78,  0.83  and  0.90 
(for  different  groups)  between  scores  in  his  first  two  and  his 
last  two  trials.  It  follows  that  the  amalgamated  results  from 
two,  or  at  most  three  trials  of  this  test  afford  quite  reliable  indi- 
cations of  ability  in  the  capacities  tested. 

(11)  Dependence  on  intelligence.  The  relation  between  logi- 
cal memory  and  intelligence  has  been  studied  mainly  by  rating 
intelligence  on  the  basis  of  scholarship.    The  resulting  correla- 


TEST  39:  MEMORY  FOR  IDEAS 


217 


tions  are  soniewh.it  unexpectedly  low.  Thus,  in  86  cases.  Wis 
sler  found  a  correlation  of  only  0.19  with  class  standing,  of  0.11 
with  standing  in  mathematics,  and  of  0.22  with  standing  in 
Latin.  Henderson  found  but  a  slight  correlation  with  class 
standing  in  the  lower  grades,  but  a  closer  correlation  in  the 
higher  grades.    He  is  of  the  opinion  that,  at  least  in  the  lower 

grades,  the  scl 1  marks  put  a  premium  upon  industry  and 

good  conduct,  rather  than  upon  native  ability,  and  thus  obscure 
the  existing  correlation.  Pyle  estimates  the  relation  with  class 
standing  in  college  al  about  0.30,  and  says:  "If  a  slow  learner 
has  the  habit  of  going  over  a  lesson  Or  task  several  limes,  ami 
a  fast  learner  the  habit  of  giving  a  lesson  but  one  hasty  read 
ing,  other  things  being  equal,  the  slow  learner  will  have  the 
better  scholarship"  (12,  ]>.  319).  The  very  best  students  have 
both  good  memory  and  good  habits  of  study.  If  performance 
in  tests  of  reasoning  be  taken  as  a  measure  of  intelligence. 
then  Peterson's  work  confirms  the  general  statement  given 
above,  for  of  30  students  classed  as  good  in  reasoning.  20  ranked 
good,  5  medium  and  5  poor  in  memory,  while  of  the  17  classed 
as  poor  in  reasoning  3  ranked  good,  0  medium  and  8  poor  in 
memory.  Again,  in  Simpson's  investigation  the  correlation 
between  logical  memory  and  estimated  intelligence  of  his 
'good'  group  was  but  0.35,  after  correction  for  attenuation. 
However,  his  good  and  his  poor  group  were  fairly  well  sepa- 
rated by  the  test,  since  none  of  the  poor  group  reached  the 
median  of  the  good  group  and  only  L5  per  cent,  of  the  poor 
group  excelled  the  lowest  12  per  cent,  of  the  good  group. 

(12)    Mental   defectives.      Wallin    tested    epileptics    by    means 

of  Binet's  Story  of  the  Fire,  though   without  warning  them 
when  reading  thai  a  reproduction  would  be  called  for.    Table 


TABLE  120 
Story  of  the  Fire.    Scores  for  Epileptics  by  Mental  Age  (After  Wallin) 


BINET-SIMON   AGE 

VII 

VIII 

IX 

X 

XI 

XII 

XIII 

Cases   

Aver.  Ideas.. 

13 

2.1 

42 
3.7 

27 
4.8 

70 
5.3 

28 
6.5 

11 

6.8 

17 
7.4 

218    [584]         ASSOCIATION,    LEARNING   AND    MEMORY 

120  shows  the  average  number  of  ideas  reproduced  by  his 
patients  as  classified  for  mental  age  by  the  Binet-Simon  tests. 
It  is  evident  that  there  exists  a  general  progress  in  efficiency 
with  mental  age,  but  that  the  average  performance  of  these 
mental  defectives  is  not  as  good  as  would  be  expected  of  normal 
children  in  the  ages  from  9  to  13. 

(13)  Miscellaneous  correlations.  Peterson,  by  the  method 
of  unlike  signs,  using  the  pooled  results  of  several  tests  of  each 
•function,'  concluded  that  memory  was  correlated  with  reason- 
ing by  0.40,  with  abstract  thought  by  0.64;  with  generalizing 
ability  by  0.40  and  with  accuracy  by  0.31.  Simpson  publishes 
as  estimated  true  correlations  (holding  for  people  in  general) 
with  memory  for  passages  the  following:  completion  test  0.71, 
hard  opposites  0.70,  memory  for  words  0.80,  easy  opposites 
0.50,  a-test  0.46,  adding  0.42.  The  high  correlation  with  memory 
for  words  permits  us,  he  concludes,  to  class  substance  memory 
with  it  as  virtually  the  same  capacity.  Winch  found  correla- 
tions between  substance  memory  and  productive  imagination 
(inventing  stories)  which  appear  to  be  higher  in  the  more  pro- 
ficient classes  (the  r's  secured  in  various  classes  were  0.28, 
0.43,  0.48,  0.62,  0.75).  Heymans  and  Brugmans  found  a  cor- 
relation of  only  0.08  between  reproduction  of  a  somewhat 
elaborate  story  at  various  time-intervals  and  the  learning  of 
nonsense  syllables,  but  a  correlation  of  0.55  between  the  memory 
test  and  a  test  involving  memory  for  details  of  a  picture.  They 
also  report  a  correlation  of  0.56  between  the  completion  test 
and  written  reproduction  of  a  difficult  passage  from  Hoffding's 
Ethics.  Wissler  found  a  correlation  of  0.21  between  logical 
memory  and  length  of  head,  but  no  correlation  between  logical 
memory  and  rote  memory,  speed  of  naming  colors,  reaction 
time,  or  breadth  of  head. 

(14)  Qualitative  aspects.6.  Inspection  of  the  work  of  children 
and  introspective  examination  by  adults  of  their  own  mental 


"Consult  especially  Balaban,  Michotte  and  Ransy,  and  Michotte  and 
Portych  for  further  study  of  the  qualitative  aspects  of  logical  memory, 
particularly  of  the  difference  between  mechanical  and  logical  memory 
under  simple  test  conditions,  like  the  method  of  right  associates.  The 
work  of  Aall  has  also  numerous  suggestive  features  in  addition  to  those 
here  mentioned. 


TEST  iVJ  :  MEMORY  FOK  IDEA8  5]    219 

processes  reveal  a  number  of  interesting  principles.  Ln  the 
first  place,  there  is  a  process  of  selection-  wo"<ls  or  ideas  thai 
are  logically  or  psychologically  importanl  I  besl  retained. 
Or,  as  Henderson  expresses  it.  there  is,  especially  during  a  long 
time-interval,  a  process  of  condensation  and  gen«,.Vization. 
The  main  ideas,  the  importanl  topics,  the  brunl  «>f  the  passage 
may  remain  fairly  constant,  but  the  minor  details  tend  to  be 
forgotten,  and  the  original  phrasing  to  become  less  and  less 
clear. 

When,  then,  the  reproduction  is  demanded,  most  S'e  first 
recall  these  main  ideas  or  larger  topics,  and  then  develop  the 
details,  as  best  they  may.  from  them.  There  is  :i  strong  tend- 
ency, in  this  filling  out  of  the  details,  toward  what  Bind  and 
Henri  speak  of  as  "verbal  assimilation,"  i.  c  ;i  tendency  to 
express  the  ideas  in  one's  own  terms,  rather  than  in  those  em- 
ployed in  the  original  passage.  Tims,  adults  often  use  syno- 
nyms or  other  forms  of  substitution,  while  children  replace  the 
words  of  the  original  by  words  from  their  ordinary  vocabulary 
(e.  g.}  played  for  <iiuusr,i  themselves,  fire  for  conflagration), 
and  at  the  same  time  tend  to  simplify  the  syntax.  In  general. 
Bind  and  Henri  found  that  the  number  of  times  thai  synonyms 
are  used  in  the  recall  is,  in  short  passages  greater,  and  iii  long 
passages  less  than  the  number  of  ideas  completely  omitted. 

Finally,  the  substitution  of  terms  for  those  of  the  original 
tends,  especially  in  younger  S's  and  with  Longer  time-intervals, 
to  become  inexact  ;  in  other  words,  the  sense  of  the  original 
becomes  more  or  less  distorted.  Thus,  for  instance,  Binet  and 
Henri  discovered  that,  in  all  sentences  containing  more  than 
20  words,  more  than  half  of  their  S's  had  made  some  change  in 
the  meaning  of  the  original.  Of  these  alterations  of  sense,  the 
most  conspicuous  are:  I  1  |  change  of  proper  names  or  of  num- 
bers, (2)  replacement  of  an  object  by  an  analogous  object  thai 
might  fit  the  sentence  equally  well,  (3)  insertion  of  details  not 
inconsistent  with  the  original,  but  still  not  in  the  original,  and 
(4)  alterations  apparently  due  to  emotional  reaction,  espe- 
cially to  exaggeration,  c.  </.,  a  frightful  snake  for  a  siutkc. 

Aall  thinks  that  two  sorts  of  fiPs  can  he  distinguished — the 
'reporters,'  who  make  every  effort  to  get  the  reproduction  es 


220    [586]        ASSOCIATION,   LEARNING   and    memory 

act,  and  the  'describers,'  who  introduce  various  modifications 
and  embellishments  for  the  sake  of  literary  or  rhetorical  effect. 
He  found  the  typical  error  in  recounting  a  story  to  be  omission 
rather  than  falsification.  Mention  has  been  made  already  of 
the  changes  found  by  Aall  in  deferred  reproductions. 

(15)  Miscellaneous  points.  In  the  case  of  college  students, 
from  50  to  90  per  cent,  of  the  words  underlined  are  actually 
correct.  A  certain  type  of  S  may  be  recognized,  who  is  ex- 
tremely cautious  about  underlining  words,  but  who  usually 
has  these  few  nearly  all  correct. 

Binet  and  Henri  estimate  that  memory  for  connected  sen- 
tences is  approximately  25  times  as  good  as  memory  for  discrete 
terms. 

REFERENCES 

(1)  A.  Aall,  Zur  Psychologie  der  Wiedererzahlung.  ZAngPs,  7: 
1912-13,  185-210. 

(2)  W.  Baade,  Aussage  fiber  physikalische  Deinonstrationen.  I.  Abb. 
Die  Metbodik  der  Versuche  fiber  die  Inhalte  der  Textaussagen.  ZAngPs, 
4 :  1911,  189-311. 

(3)  A.  Balaban,  Ueber  den  Untersebied  des  logisehen  und  des 
mecbaniscben  Gedachtnisses.    ZPs,  56 :  1910,  356-377. 

(4)  A.  Binet  et  V.  Henri,  La  memoire  des  phrases.  AnPs,  1 :  1894 
(1895),  24-59. 

(5)  J.  A.  Dell,  Some  observations  on  tbe  learning  of  sensible  material. 
JEdPs,  3:  1912,  401-406. 

(6)  E.  N.  Henderson,  A  study  of  memory  for  connected  trains  of 
thought.     New  York.     Pp.  94.     (Columbia  Univ.  Thesis.) 

(7)  G.  Heymans  und  H.  Brugmans,  Intelligenzpriifungen  mit  Studier- 
enden.    ZAngPs,  7:  1913,  317-331. 

(8)  A.  Michotte  et  C.  Ransy,  Contribution  a  1'etude  de  la  memoire 
logique.  Extrait  des  Annates  de  I'institut  superieur  de  philosophic. 
Louvain,  1912.     Pp.  95. 

(9)  A.  Michotte  et  Th.  Portych,  Deuxieme  etude  sur  la  memoire 
logique.    Ibid.,  2  :  1913,  533-657. 

(10)  R.  M.  Ogden,  Untersuchungeu  fiber  den  Einfluss  der  Ge- 
schwindigkeit  des  lauten  Lesens  auf  das  Erleruen  und  Behalten  von  sinn- 
losen  und  sinnvollen  Stoffen.    ArOesPs,  2 :  1903-4,  93-1S9. 

(11)  H.  A.  Peterson,  Correlation  of  certain  mental  traits  in  normal 
school  students.     PsR,  15:  1908,  323-338. 

(12)  W.  H.  Pyle,  Retention  as  related  to  repetition.  JEdPs,  2:  1911, 
311-321. 

(13)  W.  H.  Pyle,  The  examination  of  school  children.  New  York, 
1913.     Pp.  70,  especially  8-14. 

(14)  F.  Schramm,  Zur  Aussagetreue  der  Geschlechter.  ZAngPs,  5: 
1911.  355-357. 

(15)  Stella  E.  Sharp,  Individual  psychology:  a  study  in  psychological 
method.    AmJPs,  10:  1899,  329-391. 

(16)  J.  C.  Shaw,  A  test  of  memory  in  school  children.  PdSe,  t : 
1896,  61-78. 


TEST  3D  :  MEMORY  FOB  IDEA8  [;~^~]    221 

(17)  B.  R.  Simpson,  Correlations  of  mental  ablliti<  mbl'i 
ConEd,  No.  53.    New  l'ork,  1912.    Pp.  122. 

(18)  L.  W.Terman,  Genius  and  stupidity.    PdSe,  13:  1906,  307-373. 

(19)  ii.  b.  L.  Vos,  Beitriige  zur  Psychologle  der  Aussage  be!  Bcbul- 
kindern.  Analyseder  Aussage  liber  eine  gehOrte  Erz&hlung.  Amsterdam, 
1<J09.     (Bigenbericht,  ZAngPs,  4:  1911,  375-378.) 

(20)  J.  B.  W.  \\'ai  1  in.  Experimental  Btudlea  of  mental  defectives. 
EdPsMon,  No.  7.  1912.     Pp.  L55. 

(21)  W.  II.  Winch,  The  transfer  of  Improvement  In  memory  In  school 
children,  II.    BrJPs,  3:  1910,  386-405. 

(22)  W  11.  Winch,  Some  measurements  of  mental  fatigue  In  adoles- 
cent pupils  in  .v.ning  schools.    JEdPs,  1  :  1910,  13  23,  83-100. 

(23)  W.  II.  Winch,  Some  relations  between  Bubstance  memory  and 
productive  Imagination  In  school  children.    BrJPs,  4:  1911,  95-125. 

(24)  C.  Wissler,  The  correlation  of  mental  and  physical  tests,  l's 
Mon,  3  :  1901.     Pp.  G2. 


CHAPTER    X 

Tests  of  Suggestibility 

The  term  'suggestion'  has  found  different  usages  in  psychol 
ogy ;  four  at  least  may  be  readily  distinguished.  (1)  Suggestion 
is  equivalent  to  association,  e.  g.,  the  idea  'horse'  suggests  the 
idea  'Black  Beauty.'  (2)  Suggestion  is  the  conveyance  of  an 
idea  by  hint,  intimation,  or  insinuation,  e.  g.,  the  orator  suggests 
an  idea  by  an  appropriate  gesture.  (3)  Suggestion  is  a  method 
of  creating  and  controlling  hypnosis.  (4)  Suggestion  is  a 
process  of  creating  belief  or  affecting  judgment,  usually  an 
erroneous  belief  or  false  judgment,  in  the  normal  consciousness. 
Here  emphasis  is  placed  upon  uncritical  acceptance  of  a  notion 
usually  with  the  implication  that  the  suggested  individual 
is  unaware  that  his  ideas  have  been  thus  affected.  From  his 
point  of  view,  suggestion  is,  then,  to  follow  Stern's  definition 
(6),  "the  imitative  assumption  of  a  mental  attitude  under  the 
illusion  of  assuming  it  spontaneously." 

The  tests  which  follow  all  purport  to  measure  susceptibility 
to  suggestion  in  this  last-named  sense.  In  them,  the  experi- 
menter seeks,  by  suitable  arrangement  of  the  test-material  or 
of  the  instructions,  to  induce  the  subject  to  judge  otherwise 
than  he  naturally  would — to  induce  him,  for  example,  to  judge 
equal  lines  or  equal  weights  to  be  unequal,  or  to  perceive 
warmth  when  there  is  no  warmth,  etc.  If  the  attempt  is  suc- 
cessful, the  subject  is  said  to  have  'yielded,'  or  to  have  'accepted* 
the  suggestion ;  if  unsuccessful,  he  is  said  to  have  'resisted'  the 
suggestion.  The  degree  of  his  suggestibility  is  indicated  by  the 
quickness  or  frequency  of  his  'yields.' 

Just  as  efficiency  in  observation,  attention,  memory,  and  the 
like  has  been  shown  to  be  specific,  not  general,  in  character, 
so  is  it  probable  that  suggestibility  is  specific,  not  general,  in 
character.  For  this  reason,  suggestibility  must  be  tested  by 
more  than  one  method. 

222  [588] 


QGESTIBILITI  [589]    223 

Many  of  the  tests  in  other  portions  of  this  book,  > .  g.t  No* 
17.  23,  and  especially  32,  afford  opportunity  for  noting  the  Bog 
gestibility  of  subjects.    The  serial  graded  testa  of  Binet  and 
Simon  also  contain  directions  for  testing  the  suggestibility  of 
young  or  of  feeble-minded  children. 

The  tests  which  follow  deal  with  suggestibility  aroused  b\ 
the  volume-weighl  illusion,  the  length  of  lines,  judgments  ol 
weights  under  special  conditions,  ami  illusory  warmth.  Other 
experimental  methods  of  inducing  suggestibility,  which  have 
not  as  yet  been  arranged  for  test  work,  maj   be  briefly  cited. 

II.  J.  Pearce  (3)  had  Sf's  sit  in  a  chair  with  a  circle  of  3.5  ft. 
radius  drawn  aboul  it.  S  fixated  a  small  bit  of  paper  directly 
in  from  of  him.  A  test  square  was  exposed  briefly  at  a  point 
somewhere  to  the  right  of  the  fixation-point,  ami  8  located  its 
position  afterward  i».\  moving  his  eves  to  the  right.  Suggestion 
was  introduced  by  displaying  at  limes  a  third  hit  of  paper  near 
.a-  farther  than  the  test  square.  There  was  at  first  a  tendency 
to  resist  this  suggestion,  but  eventually  there  was  developed  a 
tendency  to  locale  the  test  square  in  a  direction  corresponding 
to  the  location  of  the  suggestive  paper.  Auditory  and  tactual 
stimuli  were  also  t  pied. 

.1.  <\  Bell  ill  displayed  triangles  of  different  shapes  and 
heights,  also  verticnl  distances  between  points  or  between  a 

point  and  a  line.  The  N's  reproduced  the  distances  and  were 
given  verbal  suggestions  or  visual  suggestions  to  "make  high*' 
or  "make  low,"  etc.  In  general,  the  suggestions  did  affect  the 
icst  with  triangles,  bul  there  were  decided  individual  differ 
ences.  ami  in  many  cases  the  constant  errors  woe  greater  than 
the  errors  induced  hy  suggestion. 

The  work  of  1'.  K.  Strong  (7)  was  similar  in  character.  Bave 
that  his  N's  exerted  maximal  strength  of  grip  while  exposed  to 
such  suggestions  as  -'Now  yon  can  make  it  stronger  than  usual." 
etc.,  bul  with  the  proviso  not  voluntarily  to  interfere  with  the 
suggestion.  The  results  showed  that  grips  following  both  in- 
gestions of  'weak'  and  'strong'  were  stronger  than  those  in- 
tended to  produce  'neutral,'  while  there  was  no  difference  be- 
'  tween  two  first  kinds. 


224    [590]  SUGGESTIBILITY 

W.  D.  Scott  (5)  produced  suggestion  with  some  success  by 
inducing  8' a  to  think  that  the  flight  of  colors  following  an 
exposure  to  white  light  corresponded  in  order  to  the  arrange- 
ment of  colors  in  the  spectrum. 

Inez  Powelson  and  M.  F.  Washburn  (4)  showed  colors  with 
comments  upon  them,  such  as  'delicate/  'crude/  etc.,  and  in- 
fluenced in  this  way  the  affective  reactions  of  19  8%  but  failed 
with  16  others. 

Giroud  (2)  showed  34  children,  aged  7  to  12  years,  a  series 
of  10  colors,  with  the  instructions  to  name  each  color  and  then, 
when  the  color  was  withdrawn,  to  write  the  name.  At  the  3d. 
7th  and  10th  terms,  a  wrong  color-name  was  uttered  by  the  ex- 
perimenter to  try  to  induce  8  to  write  it.  The  average  number 
of  'yields'  was  reduced  gradually  from  2.8  at  7  years  to  1.7  at 
12  years. 

REFERENCES 

(1)  J.  C.  Bell,  The  effect  of  suggestion  upon  the  reproduction  of  tri- 
angles and  of  point  distances.    AmJPs,  19 :    1908,  504-598. 

(2)  A.  Giroud,  La  suggestibility  chez  des  enfants  d'ecole  de  sept  & 
douze  ans.    AnPs,  18 :  1912,  362-388. 

(3)  H.  J.  Pearce,  Normal  motor  suggestibility.  PsRev.,  9:  1902, 
348-355. 

(4)  Inez  Powelson  and  M.  F.  Washburn,  The  effect  of  verbal  sugges- 
tion on  judgment  of  the  affective  value  of  colors.    AmJPs,  24 :   1913,  2G7-9. 

(5)  W.  D.  Scott,  Personal  differences  in  suggestibility.  PsRev,  17: 
1910,  147-154. 

(G)  W.  Stern,  Abstracts  of  lectures  on  the  psychology  of  testimony. 
AmJPs,  21  :    1910,  270-275. 

(7)  E.  K.  Strong,  The  effect  of  various  types  of  suggestion  upon  mus- 
cular activity.    PsRev,  17:    1910,  279-293. 

TEST  40 

Suggestion  by  the  size-weight  illusion. — Big  things  are  ordi- 
narily heavier  than  small  things  of  the  same  kind.  When  we 
lift  two  weights  of  apparently  the  same  material,  but  of  differ- 
ent sizes,  we  more  or  less  unconsciously  put  forth  more  energy 
or  expect  to  meet  with  more  resistance  in  lifting  the  larger.  If, 
as  in  the  case  of  the  so-called  'suggestion-blocks/  the  weights 
are  really  the  same,  we  almost  inevitably  judge  the  larger 
weight  to  be  the  lighter;  in  other  words,  the  visual  appearance 


TEST  4U:  SIZE-WEIGHT  ILLUSION  [59]  J    235 

of  the  weight  has  given  us  a  suggestion — or,  as  ii  turns  out, 
rather,  a  disappointed  suggestion— of  weight.1 

This  error  of  judgment  is  undoubtedly  due  to  an  association 
built  up  by  long  experience  in  handling  and  lifting  various 
articles  and  objects.2  One  might,  therefore,  suppose  that 
younger  children,  or  less  intelligent  children,  who  would,  pre- 
sumably, have  had  less  of  this  discriminative  association  of  size 
and  weight,  would  be  less  affected  by  the  suggestion.  For  this 
reason,  the  size  weight  test  has  been  applied  by  several  investi- 
gators to  determine  or  to  measure,  at  least  relatively,  the  degree 
of  suggestibility  exhibited  by  school  children  under  various 
conditions.  But  it  is  to  be  noted  that  the  having  of  the  illusion 
is  normal,  so  that  this  test  is  not  on  the  same  order  as  those 
that  follow  it,  and  it  has  probably  no  particular  value  as  a 
measure  of  suggestibility  in  older  children  and  adults;  its 
primary  value  lies  in  its  use  with  young  or  mentally  defective 
children. 

Apparatus.— Low  table.  Soft  black  cloth.  Set  of  'sugges- 
tion-blocks,' patterned  after  Gilbert,  but  modified  by  extending 
the  comparison  series  in  both  directions. 

This  set  consists  of  two  standard  Mocks  and  20  comparison  blocks. 
Both  standards  weigh  ~>r>  grams;  both  are  28  mm.  thick,  but  the  larger  is 
82  and  the  smaller  22  mm.  in  diameter.  The  20  comparison  blocks  are  all 
28  nun.  thick  and  35  nun.  in  diameter,  but  their  weights  range  from  ~>  t<» 
loo  g.  by  •",  g.  Increments.'    All  arc  painted  dead  black. 

If  it  is  desired  merely  to  make  a  muck  determination  of  the  presence 
or  absence  of  the  illusion,  simpler  materia]  may  be  employed,  preferably 
the  'Demoor  blocks'  as  used  at  the  Vineland  (N.  J.)  Training  School. 
These  blocks  are  of  poplar  wood,  and  both  weigh  1.5  lbs. ;  the  one  is  1.7.~>x 
3x4  in.,  the  oilier  1.75x4x12  in.  They  are  set  before  tf  with  the  simple 
instruction:   "Tell  me  which  block  seems  the  heavier." 

Method. — Arrange  the  table  at  such  a  height  that  fif's  fore 


'As  Scripture  remarks,  the  poor  fellow  who  lias  been  laughed  at  for  cen- 
turies to:-  saying  thai  a  pound  or  lead  is  heavier  than  a  pound  of  Feathers 
is  perfectly  right,  bo  long  as  he  speaks  psychologically,  and  looks  at  the 
pillow  ami  the  bit  of  lead  pipe,  a  concrete  demonstration  of  the  truth  of 
this  statement  is  afforded  by  several  experiments  reported  by  Wolfe. 

'Some  writers,  however,  e.  p.,  Flournoy,  attribute  the  illusion  to  an  In- 
born nervous  connection.  For  a  discussion  of  the  psychological  factors 
concerned  in  this  experiment,  particularly  in  its  relation  to  the  'lnnerva- 
tion-sense,'  consult  Flournoy,  Miiller  and  Schumann,  Seashore,  Bolton. 
Loonds,  and  van  Biervliet 

"Gilbert's  comparison  blocks  were  but  1 1  in  number,  with  a  range  from 
15  to  SO  g.    This  range  proved  inadequate  for  younger  <S's. 


226    [592]  SUGGESTIBILITY 

arm  will  be  parallel  with  the  floor  when  lifting  a  weight. 
Spread  over  the  table  the  black  cloth,  which  should  be  large 
enough  to  cover  at  least  the  portion  of  the  table  occupied  by  the 
weights,  and  thick  enough  to  deaden  the  sounds  incident  to 
their  replacement. 

Arrange  the  twenty  comparison  blocks  on  the  cloth,  in  the 
order  of  their  weight  from  left  to  right,  and  in  such  a  manner 
that  any  one  of  them  may  be  reached  by  8  without  materially 
changing  the  angle  of  his  arm.  Place  before  8  the  larger  stand- 
ard block,  and  say :  "Here  is  a  block.  I  want  you  to  find  a 
block  in  this  series  of  20  blocks  that  seems  to  you  just  as  heavy 
as  this  one.  Lift  it  by  picking  it  up  edgewise  with  your  thumb 
and  finger,  like  this.  [Illustrate.]  Then  try  the  first  of  these 
weights  [at  the  left].  If  that  doesn't  suit,  try  the  next,  then 
the  third,  and  so  on,  till  you  find  a  block  that  seems  equal  to 
this  one.  Each  time  you  must  lift  this  block  first,  then  the  one 
you  are  trying  in  the  series.  Keep  your  eyes  constantly  directed 
at  the  weight  you  are  lifting."  When  8  has  selected  an  equiva- 
lent weight,  the  same  procedure  is  followed  with  the  second,  or 
smaller,  standard  block. 

The  work  of  investigators  in  the  psychological  laboratory,  particularly 
Martin  and  Miiller,  and  Muller  and  Schumann,  has  shown  that  our  esti- 
mate of  the  absolute  or  relative  weight  of  a  body  is  conditioned  by  an  un- 
suspectedly  large  number  of  factors,  so  that,  while  it  may  be  true,  as 
Fourche  (8)  asserts,  that  voluntary  modifications  in  the  speed  of  grasp- 
ing and  lifting  the  weights  do  not  modify  the  size-weight  illusion,  it  seems 
desirable  that  the  conditions  under  which  &  lifts  the  blocks  should  be 
kept  as  uniform  as  possible. 

<S'  should  pick  up  each  block  in  the  same  manner,  lift  it  at  the  same 
tempo  and  to  the  same  height.  Again,  since  the  memory  image  for  weight 
changes  rapidly,  &'*s  .judgment,  in  so  far  as  it  is  based  upon  the  image  of 
the  first  weight,  would  be  appreciably  altered  if  the  second  weight  were 
lifted  at  varying  intervals  after  the  first :  the  interval  should,  accord- 
ingly, be  made  as  constant  as  possible,  and  fairly  short,  say  not  over  3 
sec,  and  the  arrangement  of  the  weights  must  be  such  as  to  permit  this 
pi-ocedure.  Finally,  in  this  test,  since  the  suggestion  hinges  upon  the 
visual  perception  of  the  block,  E  must  be  sure  that  8  looks  directly  at  each 
block  as  he  lifts  it. 

Treatment  of  Data. — Following  Gilbert,  Scripture,  and  Sea- 
shore, the  force  of  suggestion  produced  by  the  difference  in  size 
of  the  two  standard  blocks  may  be  indicated  by  the  difference 
in  weight,  in  grams,  between  the  two  comparison  blocks  that 
are  selected  by  8  as  the  equivalents  of  the  two  standards. 


TEST  40  :  8IZB-WBIQHT  ILLUSION 


1593]   227 


The  force  of  the  size-weight  illusion  has  been  expressed  by 
Scripture,  on  the  basis  of  the  more  elaborate  suggestion-bl<>< :ks 
used  by  Seashore,  in  the  form  (if  a  special  law.4 

Elsults. —  (1)  DepenchiK-r  on  <"/•  .  Sample  results  for  nor 
mal  children  are  those  of  Gilberi  (Table  1-1  i  :  it  will  be  seen 
from  them  thai  the  illusion  is  well  developed  at  the  age  of  n" 
years,  increases  gradually  till  !>  years,  ami  thence  declines 
slowly  with  age.5  Dresslar  (0),  however,  whose  method  was 
undoubtedly  less  satisfactory,  judged  the  effect  of  age  to  be 
indifferent  for  7  years  and  above.  Philippe  and  Clavi&re,  who 
tested  children  from  3  years  up,  declare  that  the  illusion  de- 
creases.progressively  below  the  age  of  7,  that  it  is  obtained  by 


TABLE  121 

Force  of  Suggestion  {Gilbert  i 


AGE 

6 

7 

8 

9 

10 

n 

12 

13 

14 

15 

16 

17 

NB 

45 

50      46 

47 

49      43 

54      45 

47      49      47      43 

NG 

47 

45      46 

47 

42      48 

49      58 

53      51      39      41 

F 

42.0 

45.0  47.5 

50.0 

43.5  40.0 

40.5  38.0 

34.5   35.0  34.5   27.0 

P 

36 
17.0 

37      27 
15.5   13.5 

36 
10.5 

23      22 
12.5   11.5 

15        8 
9.0     9.0 

7      12       6 

AIV 

9.5   10.5   10.0   12.0 

PB 

43.5 

43.5  45.0 

50.0 

40.0  38.5 

38.0  37.0 

31.0  33.0  32.0  25.0 

FG 

42.0 

43.5  49.5 

49.5 

44.0  40.0 

41.0  38.0 

33.5  38.0  38.5  31.0 

NB  —  number  of  boys 

NG  z=  Dumber  of  girls 

F  =  force  of  suggestion,  in  grains,  fur  both  sexes  (median  values) 

P  =  per  cent,  of  cases  in  which  F  exceeded  05  g.,  the  limit  used 

MV  =  statistical  mean  variation 

FB  =  force  of  suggestion,  in  grams  for  boys  (median  values) 

FG  —  force  of  suggestion,  in  grams,  for  girls  (median  values) 


'For  the  data  from  which  this  law  is  derived,  see  Scripture  (19.  p.  270f), 
also  Seashore  (15,  pp.  3-14).  For  a  striking  demonstration  of  the  force 
of  the  illusion,  reference  may  be  made  to  Wolfe's  statements  thai  "aboul 
one  woman  in  7  finds  i  g.  of  lead  equal  in  weight  in  60  g.  of  Inflated  paper 
bag,"'  and  not  "one  woman  in  7  will  And  a  gram  of  inflated  paper  bag  half 
as  heavy  as  a  gram  of  lead"  (21,  p.  400). 

"Gilbert's  explanation  is  given  in  the  following  terms:  "At  0  he  has  not 
yet  learned  to  compare.  As  lie  learns  gradually  to  .indue  a  thing  from 
more  aspects  than  PTie,  or  in  other  words,  learns  to  interpret  one  sense  bj 
another,  the  force  of  suggestion  given  by  the  eye  to  the  muscle  Increases 
until  at 9  he  has  come  to  the  age  of  experience  enough  to  see  that  things 
are  not  always  what  they  seem.  Consequently  at  this  age  he  begins  to 
correct  misleading  influences  bearing  upon  him." 


228   [594] 


SUGGESTIBILITY 


only  a  third  of  the  children  3  to  6  years  old,  that  it  would  per- 
haps disappear  entirely  if  the  test  could  be  carried  below  the 
age  of  3.  They  also  found  that  the  illusion  is  sometimes  re- 
versed in  children  of  these  ages. 

(2)  Dependence  on  mental  age  {defective  children).  In  1900 
Demoor  and  Daniel  (4)  used  the  size-weight  illusion,  together 
with  other  tests,  in  an  examination  of  380  'abnormal'  children, 
6  to  15  years  of  age,  in  the  city  of  Brussels.  Ten  of  these  chil- 
dren, all  of  them  ranked  as  idiots  or  'simple-minded,'  either 
failed  to  get  the  normal  illusion  or  had  the  illusion  reversed. 
Three  years  later  Claparede  (3)  obtained  similar  results  with 
18  mentally  defective  children  at  Geneva,  and  proposed  that 
'Deinoor's  sign'  (failure  to  get  the  normal  illusion)  should  be 
regarded  as  indicative  of  a  diagnosis  of  medical  (mental)  re- 
tardation. In  1913  Doll  (5)  reported  upon  the  examination  at 
the  Vineland  Training  School  of  345  feeble-minded,  of  chrono- 
logical ages  5  to  60,  and  mental  ages  1  to  12  years.  The  results 
(Table  122  and  Fig.  75)  show  that  ability  to  perform  the  test  at 
all  (with  or  without  getting  the  illusion)  indicates  a  mental 
age  of  4  years  or  over,  while  getting  the  normal  illusion  indi- 
cates a  mental  age  of  7  years  or  over,  since  84  per  cent,  succeed 
at  7  years  and  100  per  cent,  at  8  years  and  above. 


TABLE  122 

Reactions  of  Feeble-Minded  Children  to  the  Size-Weight  Illusion  (Doll) 


MENTAL  AGE 

NUMBER 
TESTED 

COMPLETE 
FAILURE 

NO  ILLUSION 

ILLUSION 

1 

35 
37 
38 
32 
35 
36 
45 
41 
25 
12 
4 
5 

345 

% 

34  97.1 

28   75.7 

17   44.8 

5   15.G 

5   14.3 

2  5.6 

3  6.7 
0   0 

0   0 
0   0 
0   0 
0   0 

94 

1 

3 
8 

14 
9 

12 
4 
0 
0 
0 
0 
0 

51 

% 

2.9 

8.1 
21.6 
43.7 
25.7 
33.3 

8.9 

0 

0 

0 

0 

0 

% 

0   0.0 

2 

3 

4 

4  10.8 

12  31.6 

13  40.7 

5 

21  60.0 

6 

22   61.2 

7 

8 

38   84.4 
41  100.0 

9 

25  100.0 

10 

12  100.0 

11 

4  100.0 

12 

5  100.0 

Total 

197 

TEST  4<>:  BIZB-WBIGHT  ILLUSION 


[595]   229 


Percentage 
1 00 


90 


BO 


TO 


60 


50 


40 


50 


20 


l 

V 
V 

-\ 

\ 
1 

\ 
\ 

/ 

1 

\ 
\ 

\ 

\ 
\ 
\ 

\ 

\ 

— 

TWPt    : 

\ 

1 

A f 

j 

—f\ — 
/   \ 

/     \ 

\ 

\ 

TfpeZ 

1/ 

\ 

— - 

\ 

\ 

/ 

\ 

\ 

/ 

"  " 

V. 

i  .. 

Cos.-       35 


2 
37 


7)         -i 
3Q      32 


5 
35 


6         7 
36      45 


9 
25 


12 
5 


i  i<;.  7">.     si/.K-WKii:ii  i    n.i.rsioN    in    mi    l  i:i:i:i.i;-m  inded.      (Doll). 

(3)  Dependence  en  sex.  The  relation  of  sex  to  suggestion  by 
the  size-weighl  illusion  has  been  differently  stated  l>y  differenl 
investigators.     Dresslar,  for  example,  concludes  that  hoys  arc 

more  suggest i I >le  than  girls.  Wolfe,  on  the  contrary,  states  that 
"men  are  less  prone  than  women  to  illusions  of  weight,"  and 
that,  in  comparing  wooden  with  lead  weights,  "the  women 
overestimate  the  lead  nearly  twice  as  much  as  the  men."  Gil- 
bert and  Seashore  find  females  more  suggestible  than  males, 
bul  in  nothing  like  the  degree  stated  by  Wolfe.  Tims,  inspec- 
tion of  his  table  shows  that,  according  to  Gilbert's  method, 
after  the  age  of  0,  girls  are,  on  the  average,  more  influenced  by 
•  the  illusion  than  are  boys.  Seashore  (16)  tested  17  women  and 
28  men  with  two  test-weights  quite  different  in  size,  and  found. 
similarly,  thai  on  the  average  the  women  showed  the  stronger 
illusion. 


230    [596]  SUGGESTIBILITY 

(4)  The  relation  of  intelligence  to  suggestibility  among  nor- 
mal children  has  not  been  treated  as  carefully  as  the  problem 
warrants.  Gilbert  made  no  correlations  with  intelligence. 
Dresslar  concluded  that  'bright  children  exhibit  a  stronger  illu- 
sion, but  Seashore  (15)  contends  that  Dresslar's  method  (ar- 
rangement in  serial  order)  did  not  afford  a  real  measure  of  the 
strength  of  the  illusion. 

(5)  Practise,  even  if  regular  and  persistent,  does  not  dispel 
the  illusion.  It  may,  on  the  contrary,  increase  in  amount 
(Hollingworth).  If  8  be  told  the  nature  of  the  illusion,  it  still 
persists,  though  its  intensity  is  thereby  somewhat  reduced 
(Seashore). 

(6)  If  the  method  of  procedure  be  modified,  the  strength  of 
the  illusion  will  be  altered. 

The  more  important  of  the  relations  thus  revealed  are  the  following  :6 

(a)  "The  illusion  of  weight  dependent  on  size  is  greatest  when  size  is 
estimated  mainly  by  muscle-sense,  and  the  weights  have  not  previously 
been  seen."    Fourche  says  it  is  then  three  times  as  strong. 

(6)  "The  illusion  is  more  fluctuating  and  on  the  .whole  not  quite  so 
strong  when  size  is  estimated  by  the  area  of  pressure  in  the  flat  palm,  in- 
eluding  a  memory  of  the  third  dimension." 

(c)  "In  these  variations,  the  illusion  is  weakest  when  size  is  estimated 
by  direct  sight." 

(d)  "When  size  is  estimated  by  the  combined  effect  of  all  the  spatial 
senses,  the  illusion  is  weaker  than  when  depending  on  musele-sense  or 
touch,  and  stronger  than  when  dependent  on  sight  alone." 

(e)  The  illusion  is  weaker  when  the  blocks  are  viewed  in  indirect 
vision,  and  still  weaker  when  judged  by  visual  memory. 

(f)  A  knowledge,  or  supposed  knowledge,  of  the  material  of  which 
weights  are  made  may  affect  the  estimate  of  their  weight. 

(g)  The  illusion  does  not  necessarily  vary  directly  with  the  volume  of 
the  compared  weights,  but  depends  in  part  upon  the  manner  in  which  the 
difference  in  volume  is  brought  about. 

(h)  The  illusion  obtains  among  the  blind,  where  it  follows  the  same 
general  law  as  for  the  seeing,  though  it  is  not  so  strong,  either  for  lifted 
or  merely  'touched'  weights,  as  for  the  seeing  under  the  same  conditions 
(Rice). 

Notes.— The  outcome  of  any  test  of  weight-comparison  is 
somewhat  affected  by  the  tendency  felt  by  all  8%  though  dif- 
fering in  degree  between  different  individuals  and  in  the  same 
individual  at  different  times,  to  overestimate  the  second  of  two 
lifted  weights. 


"See,  especially,  Seashore  (15). 


TEST  40  :  SIZE-WEIGHT  ILLUSION  [597]    231 

If  blocks  of  different  material,  e.  g.,  cork  and  Lead,  or  wood 
and  iron,  be  constructed  in  such  a  manner  as  to  have  the  same 
dimensions  and  the  Bame  weight,  the  knowledge  <>f  the  actual 
differences  in  the  weight  of  the  two  materials  produces  an  illu- 
sion similar  to  the  size-weight  illusion.  Seashore  (1G)  tested 
school  children  with  this  material-weight  illusion,  and  found 
that  the  o\  crest  imal  ion  of  the  metal  blocks  amounted  to  from 
7  to  11  grams  (or  from  13  to  20  per  cent,  of  their  actual  weight, 
55  g.  I.  For  this  illusion,  it  is  of  interest  to  note,  there  was 
found    virtually    no    variation    with   age,   sex,   or   intellectual 

ability. 

REFERENCES 

i  t  i  i'.  i;.  iinii, ,ii.  a  contribution  in  the  study  of  Illusions,  etc.  AmJPs, 
:•:    1898,  167-182,  especially  167-178. 

1 2 1  A.  <  !harpentier,  Analyse  expeximentale  de  quelques  elements  de  la 
sensation  de  poids.  Archives  de  physiologic  normah  et  pathologique,  5th 
ser.,  3:  1891,  122-135,  especially  12Gff. 

(3)  E.  Claparede,  L'illusion  de  poids  chez  les  anonnaux  et  le  Vigne  de 
Deinoor.'    ArPs  (f),2:    1903,22-32. 

(4)  Demoor  et  Daniel,  Les  enfants  anormaux  ft.  Bruxelles.  AnPs,  7: 
11JO0  (1901),  296-313,  especially  307-8. 

(5)  E.  A.  Doll,  The  Demoor  size-weight  illusion.  TrSc,  9:  1913, 
145-149. 

(6)  F.  B.  Dresslar,  Studies  in  the  psychology  of  touch.  AmJPs,  6: 
1894,  313  368,  especially  343  360. 

(7)  Tli.  Flournoy,  De  Finfluenee  de  la  perception  visuelle  des  corps  but 
leur  poids  apparent.     InPs,  I:  1894  (1895),  198-208. 

(8)  J.  A.  Fourche,  I. 'illusion  de  poids  chez  I'homme  aormal  et  le 
tabetique.    Nancy,  191  1. 

(9)  .7.  .\.  Gilbert,  Researches  on  the  mental  and  physical  development 
of  school  children.  StlYalePsLab,  2:  1894,  W-100,  especially  43-5,  and 
59  63. 

('9a  i  II.  L.  Hoilingwortb,  The  influence  of  i  air. 'in  on  mental  and  motor 
efficiency.  ColumbiaCanPhPs  20,  and  IrPs(e),  No.  22'  \u\-2.  pp.  166, 
especially  p.  20. 

(10)  II.  N.  I mis,  Reactions  t [ual  freights  of  unequal  size.    s<i 

yah  isf.dh.  ii.  s.  1  :   No.  2,  June,  1907,  :'.".t  348.     (Same  as  PsMon,  8:   No. 

.'{.   whole   NO.   '■'<  I.  I 

(11)  L.  Martin  und  G.  E.  Miillor,  Zur  Analyse  der  Untersohiedsemp- 
findliehkeit.     Leipzig,  1899.     Pp.  233. 

(12)  G.  E.  Miillor  und  F.  Schumann.  TJeber  die  psychologlschen 
Grundlagen  der  Vcrgleichung  gebobener  Gewicbte.  ArQsPhg,  45:  1SS9, 
37-112. 

(13)  J.  Pliillipe  et  J.  Claviere,  Sur  une  illusion  musculaire.  RPhP, 
40:   1895,  672-682. 

(14)  J.  F.  Rice,  The  size-weight  illusion  among  the  blind.  SdTah  Pt 
Lab,  5:  1897,  81-87. 


232    [598]  SUGGESTIBILITY 

(15)  C.  E.  Seashore,  Measurements  of  illusions  and  hallucinations  in 
normal  life.    SdYalePsLab,  3:   1895,  1-67,  especially  1-29. 

(16)  C.  E.  Seashore,  The  material-weight  illusion.  UnlowaSdPs,  2: 
1899,  36-46. 

(17)  E.  W.  Scripture,  Remarks  on  Dr.  Gilbert's  article.  SdYalePs 
Lab.  2:   1894,  101-4. 

(18)  E.  W.  Scripture,  The  law  of  size-weight  suggestion.  Sci,  n.  s.  5: 
February  5,  1896,  227. 

(19)  E.  W.  Scripture,  The  new  psychology.  London,  1897.   See  eh.  xix. 

(20)  J.  van  Biervliet,  La  mesure  des  illusions  de  poids.  AnPs.  2: 
1895,  79-S6. 

(21)  H.  K.  Wolfe,  Some  effects  of  size  on  judgments  of  weight.  FsR, 
5 :   1S98,  25-54. 

TEST  41 

Suggestion  by  progressive  weights. — This  test,  like  that  which 
follows  it,  is  one  of  several  devised  by  Binet  for  the  purpose  of 
securing  a  quantitative  measure  of  the  degree  of  suggestibility 
of  children  or  adults  when  the  suggestion  is  'depersonalized,' 
in  the  sense  that  it  is  derived  by  8  himself  from  the  objective 
conditions  of  the  experiment,  rather  than  from  the  attitude, 
tone,  instructions,  or  personality  of  E.  The  principle  embodied 
in  this  test  is,  in  other  words,  the  arousal,  by  auto-suggestion, 
of  a  "directive  idea,"  or  the  rapid  development  of  an  attitude 
of  expectation.  Suggestibility  is  measured,  at  least  approxi- 
mately, by  the  ease  with  which  this  suggestion,  or  habit,  of 
judgment,  is  aroused  and  by  the  persistence  that  it  displays 
under  conditions  which  tend  gradually  to  counteract  it. 

Materials. — A  set  of  15  weights,  of  identical  size  and  ap- 
pearance, numbered  conspicuously  from  1  to  15.  The  first  four 
weigh  20,  40,  60,  and  80  grams,  respectively;  the  remaining  11 
weigh  100  grams  each.  Table  of  such  a  height  that  8  can  stand 
in  front  of  it  and  lift  the  weights  readily.  A  thick  gray  or 
black  cloth. 

Preliminaries. — Spread  the  cloth  over  the  table.  Place  the 
15  weights  in  a  line  as  numbered,  with  the  lightest  on  the  left  and 
the  11  heaviest  on  the  right,  and  with  about  2  cm.  between  each 
weight.    No.  1  is  then  at  the  left,  No.  15  at  the  right  of  the  row. 

Method. — Give  8  the  following  instructions:  "Here  is  a 
series  of  weights,  15  of  them.  I  want  you  to  lift  them,  one  after 
the  other,  like  this.     [Illustrate  by  taking  a  weight  between 


TEST  41  :  PROGRESSIVE   WEIGHTS  [699]    233 

thumb  and  finger  and  lifting  some  10  cm.  from  the  table.]  As 
you  lift  each  weight,  I  want  you  to  tell  me  whether  it  is  heavier, 
lighter,  or  the  same  as  the  one  just  before  it.  All  you  have  to 
say  is  either  'heavier,'  or  "lighter/  or  'the  same.'  Remember 
you  arc  to  compare  each  weight  witb  the  one  you  lifted  just  be 
fore.  For  iiistiinee.  when  you  lift  the  8th,  vou  are  to  say 
whether  it  is  heavier,  lighter,  or  the  same  as  the  7th.  Bere  is 
the  first  weight,  number  one,  at  the  left  end  of  the  row." 

Watch  S  to  see  thai  he  follows  these  instructions,  particu- 
larly that  he  lifts  the  weights  successively,  without  relifting 
earlier  ones.  Record  his  judgments  verbatim:  be  careful,  also. 
to  note  any  secondary  evidences  that  might  throw  light  on  his 
judgments,  e.  //.,  attitudes  or  expressions  of  hesitancy,  assur- 
ance, surprise,  embarrassment,  cautiousness,  etc 

Variations  of  Method. —  (1)  In  the  second  method  followed 
by  Binet,  S  is  instructed  to  lift,  in  each  trial,  the  preceding 
weight  as  well  as  the  one  that  is  being  judged,  c.  g.}  he  lifts  the 
8th,  then  the  7th,  then  the  8th  again:  next  the  9th,  then  the 
8th.  then  the  9th  again,  etc.  The  lifting  is  all  done,  as  before, 
with  the  one  hand. 

(2)  In  the  third  method  followed  by  Binet,  .S'  is  asked  to  esti- 
mate the  first  weight  lifted.  He  usually  gives  too  small  an 
estimate.  He  is  then  told  that  its  weight  is  20  grams  (aboul 
0.7  ounce).  The  series  is  now  compared,  using  either  of  the 
methods  of  lifting  above  described,  according  to  n*s  preference,1 
but  8  is  required  to  estimate  or  guess  the  heaviness  of  each 
weight,  basing  his  judgment,  of  course,  merely  on  the  knowledge 
that  the  first  weight  is  20  grams. 

Treatment  of  Data. — From  the  tabulated  results,  E  may 
easily  determine  in  how  many  cases  the  objective  progression 
of  the  first  5  weights  wa3  correctly  noted.  For  a  measure  <>! 
suggestibility,  E  must  take  the  number  of  times  -heavier*  is 
judged  in  the  last  10  judgments  (when  'same'  is  the  correct 
judgment).    This  measure  is  admittedly  somewhat  crude,  but 


'It  would,  obviously,  he  better  to  prescribe  cither  the  one  or  the  other 
method  for  all  £'s.  The  first  method  has  the  merit  of  taking  less  time, 
and  It  is  the  method  that  is  for  the  most  part  naturally  adopted  by 
younger  S's. 


234  [600] 


SUGGESTIBILITY 


it  affords  a  fairly  reliable  index  for  determining  the  relative 
order  of  rank  of  a  group  of  S's.  Thus,  an  £  that  judges  'heavier' 
10  times  is  unquestionably  more  suggestible  than  one  who  an- 
swers 'heavier'  but  5  times,  though  not  necessarily  twice  as 
suggestible. 

If  all  three  methods  are  employed,  E  may  determine  >S"s  sug- 
gestibility by  adding  the  number  of  false  'heavier'  judgments 
in  all  three  tests.  In  the  third  method,  the  quantitative  esti- 
mate given  by  8  for  the  loth  weight  (or  the  maximal  estimate 
for  weights  6  to  15)  might  be  taken,  in  comparison  with  his 
estimate  of  the  5th  weight,  as  an  index  of  suggestibility,  but 
this  method  is  not  regarded  by  Binet  as  so  reliable  as  the  one 
already  described. 

Results. —  (1)  The  general  outcome  of  the  test  as  conducted 
by  the  first,  or  standard,  method  is  indicated  in  Table  123,  which 
embodies  the  results  obtained  by  Binet  upon  24  elementary- 
school  children,  aged  8-10  years. 

(2)  It  is  evident  that,  in  children  of  this  age  (8-10),  not  all 
judge  correctly  the  actual  objective  increase  in  the  first  five 
iceights.    Since  the  differences  are  supraliminal,  the  exceptions 


TABLE  123 

The  Progressive-Weight  Suggestion.     2k  Cases  (Binet) 


NO.  OF  WEIGHT 

i 

2 

3 

4     5 

6 

7 

8 

9 

10 

n 

12 

13 

14 

15 

:    !    1 

20  40  60  80100 

100 

100 

ioo  ioo  iooioo  ioo'ioo'ioo  100 

Times  estimated  + 

|241919  23:  13   18 

18 

18 

12   19   19   17   15   12 

Times  estimated  - 

ol  l|  1 

0       9 

1 

4 

1 

7 

2     2    3     3     5 

Times  estimated  = 

0  4  4 

1     2 

5 

2 

5 

5 

3     3     4     6     7 

must  be  ascribed  to  faulty  attention,  though,  possibly,  the  fact 
that  the  weights  are  of  equal  size  may  have  clouded  the  direct 
perception  of  weight  by  lifting. 

(3)  In  general,  the  suggestion  is  still  working,  though  less 
powerfully,  at  the  15th  trial :  in  other  words,  it  has  persisted, 
for  most  8%  through  the  successive  lifting  of  10  equal  weights. 

(4)  There  is  a  marked  drop  in  the  judgment  'heavier'  at  the 
6th  weight,  i.  e...  at  the  first  'trick'  weight — a  drop  which  is. 


TEST  41:   PROGRESSIVE    WEIGHTS 


[001]  235 


obviously,  due  to  a  'disappointed  suggestion,'  analogous  to  that 
which  conditions  the  size-weight  illusion  of  the  preceding  test. 
In  the  present  instance,  8  is.  in  most  cases  at  least,  prepared  to 
find  the  6th  weight  heavier  than  the  5th:  he  puts  forth  more 
effort;  the  weighl  rises  with  unexpected  ease,  and  is,  therefore, 
often  judged  lighter.'  If,  however,  8  is  more  influenced  l>y  his 
expectation  of  'heavier'  than  by  the  unexpected  lightness  of  the 
weight,  he  still  judges  'heavier,'  or  he  may.  from  the  conflict 
of  these  two  tendencies,  judge  'equal.' 

(5)  Practise  has  very  little  effect  upon  the  suggestibility  of 
n's  :  at  least  Binet  found  that,  when  L2  older  children  (16  years) 
repeated  the  test  by  the  first  method  five  times  in  immediate 
succession,  there  was  no  alteration  in  the  average  number  of 
times  that  suggestion  appeared  (the  average  number  of  sug- 
gestions in  the  five  trials  was  5.1,  4.9,  5.4,  5.0  and  5.5,  respect- 
ively). 

(6)  Binet's  tentative  experiments  indicated  that  age  appar- 
ently has  less  effect  upon  suggestion  by  progressive  weights  than 
upon  suggestion  by  progressive  lines  (see  the  following  test). 
In  trials  by  the  first  method,  12  children  aged  10  years  re- 
sponded, on  the  average,  with  5.1  suggestions,  whereas  24  chil- 
dren aged  8-10  years,  responded,  on  the  average,  with  0.75  sug- 
gestions. The  later  experiments  conducted  under  Binet's  direc- 
tion by  Giroud  show  a  distinct  lessening  of  suggestibility  after 
0  years  when  only  those  <S"s  are  considered  who  made  no  errors 
in  the  first  four  judgments  (objective  increase  of  weight),  as  is 
indicated  in  the  last  column  of  Table  124. 


TABLE  124 
Averages  for  Progressive-Weight  Suggestion  by  Age  (Giroud) 


AGE 

HEAVIER 

CONSECUTIVE 
HEAVIER 

EQUAL 

HEAVIER  JUDGMENTS  OF  s'S  MAKING 
NO  ERROR    WITH  OBJECTIVE 

JUDGMENTS 

JUDGMENTS 

JUDGMENTS 

INCREASES 

7 

6.5 

5.5 

2.3 

8.4 

8 

6.6 

5.3 

1.6 

7.0 

9 

5.2 

2.4 

2.0 

8.0 

10 

7.0 

4.8 

1.2 

4.5 

12 

5.0 

3.6 

5.0 

5.0 

236    [602]  SUGGESTIBILITY 

(7)  According  to  Binet,  comparison  of  the  results  of  this  test 
with  other  tests  of  suggestibility,  especially  the  line-test,  indi- 
cates a  fair  degree  of  correlation,  so  that,  while  the  sense-de- 
partment under  examination  may  in  part  determine  the  extent 
of  suggestion,  very  suggestible  $'s  may  be  expected  to  prove 
noticeably  suggestible  in  all  tests.  On  the  other  hand,  tests 
undertaken  in  the  Educational  Laboratory  at  Cornell  Univer- 
sity2 do  not  confirm  Binet's  statement,  and  lead  one  to  believe 
that  Scott's  conclusions  (Test  44)  are  correct,  when  he  asserts 
that  there  is  no  such  thing  as  general  suggestibility. 

(8)  Procedure  by  the  second  method  (compulsory  lifting  of 
the  antecedent  weight)  makes  the  real  progression  (1st  five 
weights)  more  uniformly  evident,  but  reduces  the  illusory 
progression. 

(9)  Procedure  by  the  third  method  (estimates  of  each  weight) 
produces  less  suggestion  than  the  first,  but  more  than  the  sec- 
ond method.  Inspection  of  the  estimated  weights  (grains) 
show  (a)  that  S's  have  a  decided  preference  for  the  use  of  num- 
bers terminating  in  0  or  5,  (5)  that  no  one  of  the  24  S's  over- 
estimated the  5th  weight  (100  g.),  but  that  they  commonly 
greatly  underestimated  it  (30  to  50  g.),  and  (c)  that  those  #'s 
that  showed  the  greater  number  of  suggestions  also  gave,  on 
the  average,  the  largest  quantitative  estimations  for  the  illusory 
increments.  The  correlation  of  suggestibility  under  these  two 
methods  of  treatment  (first  and  third)  was  found  by  Okabe  and 
Whipple  to  be  0.53. 

REFERENCES 

(1)  A.  Binet,  La  suggestibilite.    Paris,  1900.    Ch.  iv.  (pp.  161-208). 

(2)  A.  Giroud,  La  suggestibilite  chez  des  enfants  d'ecole  de  sept  & 
douze  ans.    AnPs,  18  :   1912,  362-388. 

TEST  42 

Suggestion  by  progressive  lines. — The  purpose  and  general 
plan  of  this  test  are  the  same  as  in  the  preceding  test  of  sugges- 


^hese  tests,  wbieb  were  conducted  by  T.  Okabe,  under  tbe  author's 
directions,  included  all  tbe  suggestibility  tests  of  Binet,  together  witb  tbe 
warmth  tests  (No.  44).  The  results  of  their  application  to  29  S's  indicate 
almost  total  lack  of  correlation  of  suggestibility  in  the  several  tests. 


TEST  42:  SUGGESTION   BY  PBOGBESSIVfl  LINES    [603]    L'oT 

tion  by  progressive  weights,  and  the  details  are  again  derived 
from  the  work  of  Binet. 

Apparatus. — A  sheet  of  cross-section  paper,  ruled  in  milli- 
meter squares.  Kymograph  drum,  with  kymograph  or  some 
form  of  supporting  stand.  Cardboard,  strip  <»f  white  paper, 
15X15  em.    Drawing  materials. 

Preliminaries. — Arrange  the  kymograph  drum  so  that  it 
may  lie  horizontally  and  he  revolved  freely  by  hand.  It  may 
conveniently  be  left  in  the  kymograph  with  the  driving  'step' 
loosened,  or  be  placed  in  the  smoking  stand.  Across  the  strip  of 
white  paper,  draw  with  a  ruling  pen  20  parallel,  straight,  black 
lines,  2  em.  apart  and  ea<h  1  mm.  wide.  The  lines  must  begin 
at  varying  distances  from  the  left  hand  margin:  the  first  four 
are  to  be  12,  21,  30,  and  48  mm.  long,  respectively;  the  remain- 
ing 16  are' to  be  each  60  mm.  long.  Support  the  sheet  of  card 
board  vertically  in  front  of  and  close  to  the  kymograph  drum. 
and  cut  a  horizontal  slit  1X12  cm.  through  the  cardboard  in 
such  a  position  as  to  expose  the  ruled  lines,  one  by  one,  as  they 
are  turned  past  the  slit.1 

Method. — Seat  8  50  cm.  from  the  screen  and  provide  him 
with  a  sheet  of  cross-section  paper.  The  instructions  should 
take  the  following  form:  "1  want  to  try  a  test  to  see  how  good 
your  'eye'  is.  I'll  show  you  a  line,  say  an  inch  or  two  long,  and 
I  want  you  to  reproduce  it  right  afterwards  from  memory. 
Some  persons  make  bad  mistakes;  they  make  a  line  2  inches 
long  when  I  show  them  one  3  inches  long;  others  make  one  t 
or  5  inches  lojg.  Let's  see  how  well  you  can  do.  I  shall  show 
the  line  to  you  through  this  slit.  Take  just  one  look  at  it,  then 
make  a  mark  on  this  paper  [cross-section  paper]  just  the  dis- 
tance from  this  edge  [left-hand  margin]  that  the  line  is  long. 
When  that  is  done,  I  shall  show  you  the  second  line,  then  the 


'In  default  of  the  kymograph,  the  strip  of  ruled  lines  may  be  laid  Bat 
upon  the  table  and  exposed  through  a  1  x  12  cm.  slit  cut  in  the  ..Miter  of 
a  sheet  of  cardboard  55  em.  square. 

Or,  the  test-lines  may  lie  drawn  as  sections  of  radii  upon  a  cardboard 
disc  which  is  supported  vertically  just  behind  the  screen  and  rotated  to 
bring  them  into  view  successively. 


238    [604]  SUGGESTIBILITY 

third,  and  so  on.    Make  the  marks  for  the  second  on  the  line 
below  the  first,  the  third  on  the  next  line,  and  so  on." 2 

E  then  turns  the  drum  to  bring  the  first,  or  shortest,  line  into 
view.  As  soon  as  8  turns  his  attention  to  the  recording  of  his 
estimate  on  the  paper,  the  drum  is  moved  forward  slightly  to 
conceal  the  line,  so  that  further  comparison  is  impossible.  As 
soon  as  8  has  placed  his  mark,  then,  and  not  before,  the  next 
line  is  exposed.  This  precaution  serves  to  maintain  the  im- 
pression that  a  new,  and  hence  probably  a  longer  line  is  ex- 
posed. Slow  £'s  may  need  to  be  hurried ;  too  quick  ones  may 
need  to  be  checked,  so  that  the  interval  between  successive  ex- 
posures shall  be  approximately  7  sec.  To  keep  flf's  attention 
alive,  E  may  accompany  the  exposures  with  non-suggestive  re- 
marks, e.  g.,  "Here  is  the  second  line."  "Here  is  the  third,"  etc. 
If  8  has  ceased  to  respond  to  the  suggestion  of  progressive 
augmentation  at  the  20th  exposure,  the  test  ends  at  that  point : 
if  not,  E  should,  without  /8"s  knowledge,  bring  the  drum  back 
to  the  5th  line,  and  continue  the  exposures  of  the  series  of  60 
mm.  lines  as  before,  until  8  does  cease  to  respond  to  the  sugges- 
tion. 

E  should  note  and  record  any  significant  features  in  8's 
manner,  e.  g.,  signs  of  embarrassment,  hesitancy,  automatic 
response,  etc. 

When  the  test  is  completed,  and  provided  no  further  tests  of 
suggestibility  are  to  be  undertaken  at  the  time,  E  will  find  it 
advantageous  to  quiz  8  with  regard  to  his  attitude  toward  the 
test.  This  interrogation  must  be  very  tactfully  conducted.  E 
may,  for  example,  begin  by  saying:  "Are  you  entirely  satisfied 
with  what  you  have  done"?  If  8  answers  in  the  affirmative, 
let  E  continue  with  such  inquiries  as :  "Do  you  think  you  have 
made  any  mistakes"?  "Did  you  make  any  lines  too  short  or 
too  long"?  "At  what  moment  did  you  notice  that  your  lines 
were  too  long"?     "Why  didn't  you  make  them  shorter"?  etc. 


-These  directions  should  be  followed  with  some  care.  In  tests  of  sug- 
gestion, the  slightest  change  in  the  setting  of  the  test,  or  in  the  manner  or 
content  of  the  instructions,  may  materially  affect  S's  attitude  toward  the 
experiment.  The  object  is  to  convey  the  idea  of  a  straightforward  test  of 
accuracy  of  line-reproduction,  and  to  avoid  arousing  any  suspicion  of 
snares  or  tricks. 


TEST  42  .  81  GGESTION   B*  FUOGBESSIVE  LINE8   [605]    2'6\) 

If  8  confesses  that  he  made  some  mistakes,  let  him  take  his  rec- 
ord-sheet and  make  the  changes  that  he  thinks  ought  to  be  made 
to  produce  a  correct  record,  using  small  circles  for  his  coin-' 
tions  to  avoid  confusion  with  his  first  estimates. 

Variations  of  Method. — K  may,  if  desired,  adopt  the  ar- 
rangement  first  used  by  Binet,  according  to  which  there  are  12 
successive  stimulus-lines,  all  of  which  begin  at  the  same  dis- 
tance from  the  left-hand  margin,  and  which  have  the  following 
lengths:  12,  24,  36,  48,  60,  60,  72,  72,  81,  84,  96,  96  mm.  It  is 
evident  that  numbers  6,  8, 10,  and  12  constitute  four  'trap-lines,' 
since  the  arrangement  suggests  progressive  augmentation, 
whereas  each  of  these  four  lines  is  equal  to  that  which  imme- 
diately precedes  it. 

Treatment  of  Data. —  (1)  For  a  measure  of  suggestibility.  E 
may  take  the  number  of  lines  out  of  the  last  15  lines  that  are 
drawn  longer  than  the  5th  line  was  drawn. 

(2)  A  coefficient  of  suggestibility  may  also  be  calculated, 
following  Binet's  method,  by  the  formula 

a>:100  =  max. L: 5th  L, 
in  which 

x  —  the  required  coefficient, 
)iiajc.  L  =  the  length  of  the  maximal  line  recorded  by  S, 
5th  L  =  the  length  of  the  5th  line  as  recorded  by  S. 
Absence  of  suggestibility  is,  then,  indicated  by  a  coefficient  of 
100:  presence  of  suggestibility  by  a  coefficient  of  over  100. 

(3)  When  the  variant  method  is  used,  the  degree  of  suggesti- 
bility may  be  determined  roughly  in  terms  of  the  number  of 
'traps'  in  which  8  is  'caught,'  or  more  exactly,  by  the  formula 

x :  100  =  c :  r, 
in  which 

x  =  the  required  coefficient, 

C  =  the  average  recorded  increment  of  the  four  trap  lines, 
r  =  the  average  recorded  increment  of  the  four  lines  Im- 
mediately preceding  the  four  trap-lines. 

Results. —  (1)  In  his  examination  of  pupils  in  the  elementary 
schools,  aged  8-10  years,  Binet  found  that  the  coefficient  of  sug- 
gestibility ranged  from  109  to  625.    In  16  of  42  pupils,  the  coeffi- 


240   [606J 


SUGGESTIBILITY 


cient  was  200  or  over,  i.  e.,  the  maximal  line  was  double  or  more 

than  double  the  5th  line.8 

With  the  variant  form  of  test,  Binet  found  tbe  coefficient  lying  between 
7.6  and  120.  No  one  of  45  children  avoided  all  four  'traps,'  and  3(5  chil- 
dren avoided  none  of  them.  Occasionally,  the  trap-line,  presumably  on 
account  of  the  contrast  between  the  stimulus  and  the  child's  expectation, 
was  actually  recorded  as  shorter  than  the  preceding  line.  S's  whose  co- 
efficient in  this  form  of  test  is  100,  i.  c,  whose  average  increment  for  the 
trap-lines  is  the  same  as  for  the  objectively  progressive  lines,  are  termed 
'automatic' 

(2)  The  point  at  which  maximal  suggestion  is  registered 
is  commonly  between  the  19th  and  the  25th  line,  but  may  lie 
anywhere  between  the  Tth  and  the  36th  (this  being  the  limit 
tested  by  Binet). 

(3)  Inspection  of  the  records  of  individual  pupils  shows 
that  in  some  cases  the  force  of  suggestion  was  steady  and  per- 
sistent, while  in  others  it  reached  a  maximum,  and  then  de- 
clined. 

(4)  Extremely  suggestible  /S's  may  make  their  'estimate'  of 
the  line  without  even  looking  at  it  when  exposed;  their  minds 
are  so  completely  dominated  by  the  suggestion  of  uniform 
augmentation  that  they  do  not  trouble  to  observe  the  stimulus. 

(5)  The  degree  of  suggestion  induced  by  this  test  declines 
markedly  with  age:  Binet  found,  for  instance,  that  the  coeffi- 
cients of  suggestibility,  in  the  case  of  12  pupils  whose  age  aver- 
aged 1G  years,  ranged  only  from  103  to  146.  Binet's  work  was 
continued  by  Giroud,  who  tested  38  children  and  obtained  for 
averages,  on  the  basis  of  a  possible  score  of  15,  the  following 
averages  for  the  number  of  times  any  line  beyond  the  5th  ex- 
ceeded the  length  assigned  to  the  line  just  before  it : 


YEARS 

7 

8 

9 

10 

12 

Cases  tested 

10 
10.7 

10 
8.2 

5 
4.2 

5 
4.8 

8 

Score 

1.0 

That  it  is  difficult  to  induce  the  suggestion  with  adults  was 
shown  in  scattered  tests  made  by  the  author  upon  college  stu- 
dents.   On  the  other  hand,  Chojecki,  who  tested  30  men  and  30 


"For  detailed  records  of  number  of  individual  cases,  consult  Binet,  124ff. 


TEST  42 1  SUGGESTION  Bl    PEOGBE881VB  LINE!    [Cu7J    -4  1 

women  students  of  the  University  of  Geneva,  had  better  suc- 
cess, and  found,  indeed,  3G  persons  (22  men  and  14  women) 
susceptible  of  suggestion  by  this  method. 

(C»)  In  either  form  of  test,  the  Hi  line  is  ap1  to  be  over-esti- 
mated. Theothlinc  is  almost  invariably  underestimated.  Gen- 
erally speaking,  this  underestimation  is  less  pronounced  in 
those  S's  that  prove  least  suggestible. 

(7)  In  many  instances,  the  records  bear  witness  to  a  struggle 
between  the  directive  idea  of  progressive  increments  and  the 
impressions  which  are  actually  received  from  the  lines  as  they 
are  exposed.  Especially  characteristic  is  the  appearance  of  a 
number  of  estimates  in  which  the  directive  idea  is  effective, 
followed  by  a  sudden  reduction  in  estimation,  which  is  again 
followed  by  another  series  of  progressive  increments.  In  other 
words,  the  idea  of  progression  is  operative  until  a  point  is 
reached  when  the  recorded  length  is  manifestly  too  long.  S 
makes,  then,  a  more  or  less  marked  correction,  but  does  not, 
curiously,  relinquish  the  notion  of  progression,  and  this  again 
becomes  manifest. 

(8)  The  corrections  made  by  young  S's  during  the  inquiry 
that  follows  the  test  cannot,  of  course,  he  taken  as  exact  indi- 
cations of  the  extent  of  the  suggestion  or  of  their  consciousness 
of  error.  It  will  be  found  that  many  N's  are  conscious  that  ihe.\ 
have  made  the  lines  too  long;  some  can  also  explain  why  they 
made  them  too  long;  but  it  is  rare  that  any  one  gives  a  satisfac 
tory  explanation  of  why  he  continued  to  make  them  too  long, 
after  he  realized  that  he  had  been  overestimating. 

(9)  Correlations.  Tests  of  school  children  and  of  adults  l.\ 
Okabe  and  Whipple  afforded  the  following  correlations  ^font- 
rule  method)  :  Suggestibility  for  progressive  lines  (number  of 
'yields')  and  suggestibility  for  progressive  lines  (maximal  di- 
vided by  the  5th  line)  0.38;  correlation,  by  either  treatment. 
with  contradictory  suggestion,  (Test  43)  about  O.2."),  with 
directive  suggestion  (Test  43)  about  0.20,  with  suggestion  for 
warmth  0.17,  with  the  size-weight  illusion  (Test  40)  0.10  by  the 
first,  and  — 0.14  by  the  second  method  of  computing  suggestion 
for  progressive  lines. 


242    [608]  SUGGESTIBILITY 

REFERENCES 

(1)  A.  Binet,  La  suggestibility    Paris,  1900.    Pp.  83-160. 

(2)  A.  Chojecki,  Contribution  a  l'etude  de  la  suggestibilite.  ArPsif), 
11 :    1911,  182-186. 

(3)  A.  Giroud,  La  suggestibility  chez  des  enfants  d'ecole  de  sept  a 
douze  aus.    AnPs,  18 :  1912,  362-388. 

TEST  43 

Suggestion  of  line-lengths  by  personal  influence. — In  the  three 
precediDg  tests  suggestion  is  produced  by  the  objective  condi 
tions  of  the  test :  in  everyday  life,  however,  suggestion  is  often 
produced  by  personal  influence,  by  authoritative  statement  or 
command,  or  merely  by  what  Binet  terms  'moral  influence.' 
Two  forms  of  line-test  have  been  utilized  by  Binet  to  study 
this  variety  of  personal  suggestion :  the  first  he  terms  'contra- 
dictory suggestion,'  the  second  'directive  suggestion'  (sugges 
tion  directricc)  :  in  the  former  E  makes  certain  statements  that 
are  intended  to  interrupt  or  modify  a  judgment  that  8  has  just 
made;  in  the  latter,  statements  that  are  intended  to  control  or 
influence  a  judgment  that  8  is  just  about  to  make. 

A.       CONTRADICTORY    SUGGESTION 

Materials. — Drawing  materials.  A  sheet  of  cardboard  upon 
which  are  drawn  in  ink  24  parallel,  straight,  black  lines,  rang 
ing  in  length  from  12  to  104  mm.,  by  increments  of  4  mm.  The 
lines  all  begin  at  the  same  distance  from  the  left-hand  margin, 
are  7  mm.  apart,  and  are  numbered  in  order  of  their  length, 
from  1  to  24.  Three  rectangular  pieces  of  cardboard,  about 
12x20  cm.,  on  each  of  which  is  drawn  a  single  straight  line. 
These  three  stimulus-lines  correspond  to  numbers  6,  12,  and  IS 
of  the  24  comparison-lines,  and  are,  accordingly,  32,  56,  and  80 
mm.  long,  respectively. 

Method. — Show  8  the  card  of  comparison-lines,  and  explain 
their  numbering.  Replace  this  by  the  first  stimulus-line  (32 
mm.),  saying:  "Look  carefully  at  this  line."  After  4  sec,  re- 
move the  stimulus-card,  present  the  comparison-card,  and  say : 
''Tell  me  the  number  of  the  line  that  is  just  the  length  of  the 
one  I  showed  you."  At  the  moment  that  8  gives  his  judgment, 
E  says :  "Are  you  sure  ?  Isn't  is  the  — th"  ? — indicating  always 
the  next  longer  line.    If  8  answers  "No,"  E  repeats  the  question 


rBSI   I"- :  B1  GGBSTION  or  LINE-LENGTHS        [t!Olj]    243 

in  exactly  the  same  form.  If  S  still  answers  "No,"  the  attempt 
to  produce  sugg<  Btion  is  suspended,  and  the  ease  is  recorded  as 
one  'resistance.'    The  second  and  the  third  Btimulus-lines  are 

presented  and  the  Bame  procedure  is  followed  in  each  case. 
If,  in  any  of  the  trials  6  answers  "Yes,"  E  then  inquires: 
"Isn't  ii  t his  one"?— indicating  the  next  longer  line,  and  this 
inquiry  is  carried  on  from  line  to  line  until  8  lias  twice  resisted 
the  suggestion,  /.  e.}  has  twice  answered  "No"  to  the  same  ques 
tion.1 

Variations  of  Metiioo. — For  many  fif's,  particularly  for 
adults,  more  success  will  attend  the  use  of  a  second  method 
tried  by  Binet  in  preliminary  tests,  viz.:  the  introduction  of  an 
interval  of  12  sec.  between  removal  of  the  stimulus  line  ami 
presentation  of  the  comparison-card. 

Treatment  of  Data. — Following  Binet,  S's  suggestibility 
may  be  rated  in  terms  of  the  total  number  of  'advances'  in  lines 
that  he  makes,  under  inquiry,  in  all  three  trials.  Thus,  if  he 
yields'  two  lines  the  first  time,  three  the  second,  and  none  the 
third,  his  suggestibility  is  rated  as  5. 

Results. —  (1)  Children  tend  to  .select  for  their  first  line  one 
that  is  shorter  than  the  stimulus-line.2 

(2)  Of  2.~>  children,  aged  8-10  years,  Binet  found  6  who  re- 
sisted suggestion  completely,  (>  who  'yielded'  once.  .">  twice,  2 
three  times.  2  four  times,  and  one  each  six,  seven,  and  more 
than  seven  times. 

(3)  Preliminary  experiments  conducted  by  Binet  and  Henri 
upon  241)  pupils,  with  some  slight  changes  in  method  (particu- 
larly, giving  an  opportunity  both  for  direct  comparison  and  for 
selection  by  memory  after  a  12  sec.  interval),  yielded  the  re- 
sults (2:  p.  343)  indicated  in  Table  125. 

Here  it  is  evident  that  iv's  suggestion  is  less  effective  when  S 
can  make  direct  comparison  of  the  lines,  and  that  suggestibility, 


'Once  more  it  should  he  said  Hint  it  is  highly  Important  to  follow  the 
same  fonn  of  inquiry,  to  use  the  same  tone,  the  same  attitude,  in  every 
question  tor  every  S,  since  the  surest  ion  which  we  seek  to  measure  is 
conditioned  by  the  character  of  the  Inquiries. 

•'/.'  is  almost  always,  therefore,  in  a  position  to  demonstrate  to  S,  if 
need  lie.  after  the  test,  that  his  suggestion  would  have  been  a  sound  one 
to  follow. 


244  [610] 


SUGGESTIBILITY 


TABLE  125 

Percentage  of  'Yields'  to  Contradictory  Suggestion  (Binet  and  Henri) 


AVERAGE  AGE 

MEMORY   TEST 

COMPARISON   TEST 

MEAN 

7-9 

9-11 

11-13 

89 

80 
54 

74 
73 
48 

81.5 
76.5 
51.0 

under  either  direct  comparison  or  comparison  from  memory, 
declines  with  age. 

(4)  £'s  who  have  selected  the  correct  line  are  less  apt  to 
change  their  designation  under  suggestion  than  are  &'s  who 
have  selected  the  wrong  line :  thus  Binet  and  Henri  found  that 
56  per  cent,  changed  their  selection  when  it  was  actually  right, 
but  88  per  cent,  when  it  was  wrong.  Moreover,  of  the  latter, 
81  per  cent,  made  the  change  in  the  proper  direction. 

B.      DIRECTIVE  SUGGESTION 

Apparatus.— As  in  Test  42,  save  that  only  the  60  mm.  lines 
are  used. 

Method.— Seat  8  50  cm.  from  the  cardboard  screen  and  pro- 
vide him  with  a  sheet  of  cross-section  paper.  Instruct  him  as 
follows :  "I'm  going  to  show  you  a  number  of  lines.  You  will 
see  them  appear  through  this  slit,  one  at  a  time.  When  I  show 
you  a  line,  take  a  good  look  at  it ;  then  make  a  mark  on  this 
paper  at  just  the  distance  from  this  edge  [left-hand]  that  the 
line  is  long.  When  that  is  done,  I  shall  show  you  the  second, 
then  the  third,  and  so  on.  You  will  make  the  mark  for  the 
length  of  the  second  line  on  the  second  line  of  your  paper,  for 
the  third  on  the  next  line,  and  so  on." 

E  now  displays  the  5th,  i.  e.,  the  first  60  mm.  line  of  the  series, 
with  the  remark :  "Here  is  the  first  one."  When  S  is  ready  for 
the  second  line,  i,  e.,  7-10  sec.  later,  E  remarks,  as  he  exposes  it : 
"Here  is  a  longer  one."  When  the  third  is  exposed,  he  remarks 
"Here  is  a  shorter  one ;"  and  he  continues  to  use  these  remarks, 
alternately,  at  the  moment  of  exposure  of  each  line,  until  15 
lines  have  been  exposed,  the  first  without  suggestion,  the  re- 
mainder coupled  with  14  suggestions— 7  of  shorter,  7  of  longer. 


TEST  43:  SUGGESTION  OF  LINE-LENGTHS        [Gil]    24.J 

These  suggestions  muel  be  given  just  before  the  line  is  ex- 
posed, in  a  quiel  tone,  withoul  looking  al  8.  8  Bhonld  see  the 
disc  turn  and  the  new  line  appear  al  the  moment  thai  he  re 
ceives  the  suggesl  ion. 

If  desired,  8  may  be  questioned  afterward,  as  indicated  in 
Test  42,  with  regard  to  his  attitude  toward  the  suggestions. 

Ti:i:\ -i  mi:.\t  of  Data.  -When  8  accepts  the  suggestion,  record 
a  -plus'  case;  when  he  resists  the  suggestion,  either  by  making 
ili,.  length  equal  to  thai  ol  the  preceding  Line,  or  by  altering  the 
length  in  a  direction  contrary  to  the  intent  of  the  suggestion, 
record  a  'minus'  case.  The  number  of  the  plus  cases  may  serve 
as  an  index  of  aS"s  suggestibility.  Record  should  also  be  kepi  of 
the  extent  of  modification  (in  mm.)   made  by  8  in  each  trial. 

Results. —  (1)  The  verbal  directive  suggestion  used  in  this 
test  is  more  potent,  at  least  for  children  8-10  years  old,  than  the 
auto-suggestion  induced  in  Test  42.  Sixteen  of  23  pupils  tested 
by  Binet  submitted  completely  to  the  suggestion.3  and  no  one 
resisted  every  suggestion. 

(2)  The  suggestion  is,  in  general,  stronger  at  the  outsel  than 
toward  the  end  of  the  series,  as  is  indicated  by  the  fad  that  the 
extent  of  modification  of  line-length  decreases,  and  the  number 
of  complete  resistances  increases,  as  the  series  progresses. 

(3)  Verbal  suggestion  is  commonly  more  effective  in  pro- 
ducing augmentation  than  in  producing  reduction  in  line-length, 
in  the  proportion  of  about  5  to  4. 

(4)  There  are  marked  individual  differences  in  the  suggesti- 
bility of  school  children  under  the  conditions  of  this  test.  Binet 
found  that  in  18  trials  the  number  of  resistances  to  suggestion 
ranged  from  0  to  14.  (See  Binet,  1,  pp.  22S-9,  for  a  detailed 
table.) 

(5)  The  first  line  is  practically  invariably  underestimated. 

(6)  Tests  upon  10  children,  whose  average  age  was  17  years. 
vshowed  less  suggestibility  than  in  the  ease  of  younger  children  ; 
still.  4  of  (he  IT  accepted  every  suggestion,  and  3  others  re 
sisted  suggestion  only  once.  The  average  extent  of  modification 
produced  by  suggestion  is,  however,  less  than  in  the  case  of 


■  "This  statement  is  made  in  the  text,  but  does  not  appear  to  be  borne  out 
by  Binet's  table  (1,  pp.  228-0). 


246    [612]  SUGGESTIBILITY 

younger  &'s.  Again,  the  extent  of  modification  is  practically 
constant  throughout  in  the  series  with  the  older  $'s,  but  large 
at  first  and  then  progressively  less  in  the  series  with  the 
younger  S's. 

Notes. — The  experiments  of  Bell,  Brand  and  Jones,  in  which 
the  estimates  or  judgments  of  spatial  magnitudes  or  extents 
were  subjected  to  verbal  suggestions,  such  as  "make  high," 
"make  low,"  "you  are  now  able,"  "you  are  now  unable,"  etc., 
cannot  be  directly  compared  with  the  work  of  Binet,  because  in 
all  of  them  the  $'s  were  well  aware  of  the  intentional  and  arti- 
ficial character  of  the  suggestions  and  were  instructed  to  avoid 
voluntary  resistance  to  them.  In  general,  the  suggestions  in 
these  experiments  had  some  effect  upon  the  work  of  the  $'s, 
but  not  upon  all  of  them,  nor  always  in  the  direction  in  which 
they  were  supposed  to  influence  the  outcome. 

REFERENCES 

(1)  A.  Billet,  La  suggestibilite.     Paris.  15)00.  especially  219-243. 

(2)  A.  Binet  et  V.  Henri,  De  la  suggestibilite  natnrelle.  RPhF,  38: 
1894,  337-347. 

(3)  J.  C.  Bell,  The  effect  of  suggestion  upon  the  reproduction  of  tri- 
angles and  of  point  distances.    AmJPs,  19  :   1908,  504-598. 

(4)  J.  E.  Brand,  The  effect  of  verbal  suggestion  upon  the  estimation 
of  linear  magnitudes.    PsRcv.  12  :  1905,  41-49. 

(5)  Grace  M.  Jones,  Experiments  on  the  reproduction  of  distance  as 
influenced  by  suggestions  of  ability  and  inability.  PsRcv,  17:  1910, 
269-278. 

TEST  44 

Suggestion  by  illusion  of  warmth. — In  measuring  either  dis- 
criminative or  liminal  sensitivity,  difficulty  is  not  infrequently 
caused  by  the  interference  of  auto-suggestion  (see  various  tests 
of  Chapter  VI).  In  the  immediately  preceding  tests  (Nos.  40 
to  43),  a  process  of  discrimination  (of  weights  and  line-lengths) 
was,  accordingly,  made  the  basis  for  testing  suggestibility.  In 
the  present  test,  a  (supposed)  measurement  of  liminal  sensi- 
tivity is  made  the  basis  for  testing  suggestibility.  The  plan  is 
to  arrange  experimental  conditions  in  such  a  way  as  to  suggest 
warmth,  when  no  warmth  is  present. 

This  idea  seems  to  have  originated  in  the  Yale  laboratory, 
when  Seashore  (5),  in  1895,  worked  out  a  proposal  made  two 
years  earlier  by  Scripture  (4).     Small's  varied  tests  of  sug- 


TEST  44:    ILLUSION  OF   WARMTH  [613]    247 

gestibility  (6),  which  appeared  in  the  following  year,  embodied 
two  very  Bimple  'heat'  tests.  More  recently,  Guidi  iu  190S, 
Scotl  in  L910,  and  Chojecki  in  1911,  have  reported  tests  of  sug- 
gestibility to  warmth,  the  former  with  a  Bimple  'warmth  box,' 
the  latter  with  apparatus  Bomewhal  similar  to  the  original  de- 
vice of  Seashore.  Four  methods  are  described  herewith;  the 
resistance-wire  method  of  Seashore  and  Scott,  the  heated  box 
method  of  Gnidi,  and  the  two  simple  methods  employed  by 
Small. 

A.       ILLUSORY   WARMTH — RESISTANCE-WIRE  METHOD 

Apparatus.— Stop-watch.    Special  warmth-tester. 

The  warmth-teeter  consists  of  a  wooden  box,  "pen  at  the  end  facing  /.'. 
.uid  provided,  on  the  top.  with  porcelain  sockets  for  four  electric  lamps, 
wired  in  multiple,  and  with  a  snap  switch  by  which  the  currenl  <  lor,  110 
volt.  1).  C.i  may  be  turned  en  or  off.  The  wiring  is  purposely  left  visible, 
and  leads  conspicuously  from  the  lamps  t<>  a  coil  of  No.  -1  German-silver 
wire,  1  in.  Ions,  which  is  wound,  without  covering,  about  a  tlat  piece  of 
hard  rubber,  .".  xlO  cm.  This  resistance  coil  is  fastened  to  the  fronl  of 
the  box.  In  such  a  manner  that  it  may  be  easily  readied  by  8,  without 
exposing  bis  fingers  to  the  warmth  of  the  lamps  on  the  top  of  the  box.  A 
concealed  circuit  leads  to  a  noiseless  switch,  underneath  the  box.  which 
can  be  operated  by  E  without  g'S  knowledge.  By  means  of  this  switch.  /; 
may  shunt  the  current  through  the  coil,  or  cut  the  coil  out  entirely,  with- 
out' affecting  the  illumination  of  the  lamps.1 

Preliminaries. — Find  an  arrangement  of  lamps  snch  that, 
when  the  current  passes  through  the  coil,  warmth  becomes  pep 
ceptible  in  8  to  in  see.  Four  25-watl  tungsten  lamps  generally 
prove  satisfactory.    If  necessary,  use  one  or  more  40-watt  lamps. 

Method. — Give  »S'  the  following  instructions:  "I  want  to 
lest  your  ability  to  perceive  warmth.  Hold  this  coil  of  wire 
gently  between  your  thumb  and  two  fingers,  like  this  [illustrat- 
ing]. You  will  see  that  the  coil  is  connected  with  these  electric 
lamps,  so  that,  when  I  light  them,  a  current  of  electricity  can 
flow  through  the  coil  and  warm  it — it  is  made  of  German  silver 
wire,  and  offers  a  slight  resistance  to  the  current.  There  is 
nothing  at  all  to  be  afraid  of.    You  can't  feel  any  shock  from 


'In  default  of  a  110-volt  circuit,  a  resistance-wire  apparatus  may  be 
contrived  with  a  battery,  after  the  plan  described  by  Seashore,  though 
the  absence  of  the  illuminated  lamps  alters  the  experimental  conditions. 


248    [614]  SUGGESTIBILITY 

the  current,  nothing  but  a  slight  warmth.  Watch  carefully, 
and,  the  moment  that  you  feel  warmth,  say  'now.' " 

Without  attracting  $'s  attention,  close  the  secret  coil-switch, 
so  that  no  current  passes  through  the  coil.  After  a  preliminary 
'ready,'  snap  the  lamp-switch  rather  ostentatiously;  start  the 
stop-watch  at  the  same  instant,  and  lean  forward  in  an  attitude 
of  expectancy,  keeping  one  hand  on  the  lamp-switch,  as  if 
awaiting  8's  'now.'  Snap  the  lamps  off  as  soon  as  the  'now'  is 
spoken.  Eecord  the  time.  Feel  of  the  coil,  or  solicitously  blow 
upon  it,  as  if  to  cool  it.  Repeat  the  test  5  times  with  each 
hand,  alternately. 

If  #,  at  any  trial,  fails  to  get  the  illusion  of  warmth  within 
<J0  sec,  open  the  coil  switch  (without  $'s  knowledge),  so  that 
warmth  is  actually  felt,  but  record  the  trial  as  one  'resistance,' 
or  failure. 

Variations  of  Method. — Following  the  plan  of  Seashore  and 
of  Scott,  tell  8  that  20  trials  will  be  made.  Give  a  preliminary 
series  of  5  trials  with  each  hand,  with  objective  warmth  from 
the  start,  in  each  trial.  Without  interruption,  continue  with 
an  equal  number  of  trials  in  which  the  coil  is  not  warmed  unless 
8  fails  to  report  warmth  within  a  period  of  some  10  sec.  longer 
than  the  average  time  at  which  he  had  reported  warmth  in  the 
first  10  trials. 

Treatment  op  Data. — In  either  method,  suggestibility  is 
measured  by  the  absolute  or  relative  number  of  trials  (without 
objective  warmth)  in  which  8  reports  warmth. 

8  may  also  be  rated  in  terms  of  the  quickness  (number  of  sec- 
onds) with  which  the  illusion  is  reported. 

B.       ILLUSORY  WARMTH GUIDES   METHOD 

Apparatus. — Stop-watch.  Matches.  Alcohol  lamp,  fitted 
with  hinged  extinguishing  cap.  Cubical  wooden  box,  with  a 
chimney-like  metal  top,  a  circular  hole  in  the  front  face,  and  a 
hinged  door  in  the  back  face  (Fig.  76). 

Method. — Z?'s  instructions  are  analogous  to  those  in  the  re- 
sistance-wire method.  "I  want  to  test  your  ability  to  perceive 
warmth.  I  want  you  to  thrust  your  forefinger  into  this  box 
through  the  hole  in  front.    T  shall  put  this  lamp  into  the  box. 


TEST  44:    ILLUSION   OF   WARMTH  I*'1"']     ~t!l 

It  won't  burn  you  at  all.  Just  watch  very  carefully,  and  say 
•now'  the  moment  thai  you  notice  any  warmth  in  the  box."  /.' 
then  lights  the  alcohol  lamp,  opens  the  door  of  the  box,  Bets  in 
the  lamps  extinguishing  the  flame  as  he  does  so,  starts  the 
watrh.  .loses  the  door,  ami  expectantly  awaits  g'a  judgments.8 

Materials.— Alcohol  lamp.  A  pin  thrust  through  the  rubber 
tip  of  a  pencil,  or  through  a  small  hit  of  soft  wood.  Toothpick, 
or  other  hit  of  wood  with  a  blunt  point.  Matches.  Piece  of 
cardboard,  about  15x15  cm.  Blindfold. 

Method.— (1)  Let  S  sec  the  lighted  lamp  ami  the  pin  in  its 
holder.  Instinct  him  as  follows:  "]  am  going  to  warm  Ibis 
pin  in  this  flame,  then  touch  it  to  the  hack  of  your  hand  to  see 
if  you  can  notice  the  warmth  it  makes.  Don't  he  afraid  of  be- 
ing burned,  as  it  will  not  be  hot  enough  for  that,  and  I  shall  try 
it  on  my  own  hand  first.  Say  'now'  when  you  feel  its  warmth." 
Blindfold  8  carefully.  Go  through  the  operation  of  heating  the 
pin;  say  'ready,'  but  do  not  touch  N*s  hand  at  all.  If  8  reports 
warmth,  ask  him  to  describe  Hie  feeling:  if  he  does  not  report 
warmth,  repeal  the  test,  but  touch  him  on  the  back  of  the  hand 
with  the  pointed  piece  of  wood,  to  see  if  the  contact  is  reported 
as  'warm'  or  'hot.' 

(2)  Light  a  match  and  move  it  around  about  1  cm.  above  the 
hack  of  8's  hand,  ('all  his  attention  to  the  'waves  of  heat'  thai 
he  feels.  Blindfold  him  carefully.  Ask  him  to  see  if  he  can  de- 
tect the  heat  waves  every  time.  Strike  a  match,  and  move  it 
about  over  his  hand,  but  hold  the  cardboard  between  the  match 
and  the  hand.  Repeal  several  times  with  either  hand.  Note 
the  number  of  times  the  suggestion  is  'accepted,'  and  any  indi- 
cations of  the  readiness  or  degree  of  suggestibility. 

Ki:sults  for  ALL  Methods. —  (1)  In  general,  the  results  of 
the  warmth-illusion  test  appear  to  he  conditioned  primarily  by 
the  success  of  the  investigator  in  creating  a   proper  atmos 


2GuIdl's  method  deviated  somewhat  from  the  above,  in  that  8  w;is  in- 
structed to  push  his  finger  slowly  into  the  box  against  b  metal  disc,  and 
degree  of  suggestibility  was  measured  by  the  extent  to  which  the  Anger 
had  been  inserted  when  warmth  was  reported.  This  procedure  pn 
difficulty  in  governing  the  rate  of  movement,  and  has,  so  far  as  the  au- 
thor's experience  goes,  no  advantage  over  the  procedure  that  baa  been 
recommended. 


250    [616]  SUGGESTIBILITY 

phere  of  suggestibility,  rather  than  upon  the  particular  appa- 
ratus employed.  Thus,  Seashore  met  with  amazing  success. 
Of  his  8  college  students,  only  3  resisted  at  all,  and  these  but 
once  or  twice  each,  so  that,  in  420  trials,  there  were  only  5 
failures  to  perceive  heat.  Small  tested  boys  and  girls  from  the 
7th  grade  and  the  high  school:  in  21  trials,  5  reported  heat, 
with  no  contact  at  all,  19  reported  heat  from  the  wooden  point, 
while  in  10  trials  with  the  "heat-waves,"  17  proved  suggestible. 


FIG.  76.     GUIDl'S  APPARATUS  FOR  THE  WARMTH  ILLUSION. 

(Modified  by  Whipple.) 
C.       ILLUSORY  WARMTH — SMALL'S  METHOD 

Of  Scott's  20  college  students,  0  'yielded'  10  times  (of  a  pos- 
sible 10)  ;  5  yielded  9  times;  2  yielded  1  times,  and  1  each  8,  7, 
5,  and  3  times.  No  one  of  the  20  &?s  resisted  in  every  trial. 
Chojecki,  who  tested  30  men  and  30  women  students  at  the 
University  of  Geneva,  got  positive  results  from  19  (31.8  per 
cent.)  with  the  use  of  Guidi's  method.  Okabe,  who  worked  with 
school  children  and  adults  in  the  Cornell  laboratory  under  the 
author's  direction,  obtained  positive  results  in  70.7  per  cent,  of 


ri.si    11:   ILLUSION  OP  WARMTH 


[617]   251 


the  trials,  and  with  22  of  29  S'a  (Table  L26).  The  Kalian 
children  tested  by  <;ui<]i  were  less  suggestible  (a1  leasl  for  hi* 
method  i.  as  Table  L27  shows. 


TABLE  126 

Suggestibility  to  Warmth.    Resistance-Coil  Method  {Okabt  and  \\'iiii>i>i>  > 


GROUP 

NUMBER 

TRIALS 

YIELDS 

PER- 
CENTAGE 

OF 
SUGGEST- 
IBILITY 

W  I  III 

NO 

YIELDS 

Women 

12 

7 
5 
5 

59 
29 
36 
33 

43 
20 
27 
21 

73 

69 
75 
64 

1 

2 

Bright  boys 

Dull  boys 

1 
1 

Totals 

29 

157 

111 

70.7 

5 

(2)  The  relation  to  sex  and  to  age  cannot  be  slated  with  as- 
surance. Guidi's  results  indicate  maximal  suggestibility  at  the 
age  of  9,  but  the  Cornell  tests,  perhaps  from  being  too  few  in  num- 
ber, failed  to  show  characteristic  differences  between  grammar- 
school  boys  and  adults.  It  is  likewise  unsafe  to  generalize  from 
the  indications  there  given  of  the  greater  suggestibility  Of  men. 

(3)  The  degree  of  suggestibility,  as  indicated  by  the  readiness 
with  which  warmth  is  felt,  differs,  as  might  be  expected,  in 
different  S's,  i.  C,  even  of  those  who  invariably  perceive  warmth, 
some  report  only  '"faint  warmth,"  others  "sudden  heat."  etc. 
Guidi  classed  his  pupils  into  three  groups,  according  as  they 
took  the  suggestion  quickly  (in  1  to  ~  sec),  moderately  i-  to  .'* 
sec.  i .  or  slowly  i  after  3  sec),  and  found  33  per  cent.,  63.7  per 
cent.,  and  .">..*>  per  cent,  of  his  n's  in  these  three  classes,  re- 
spectively. 

(4)  Scott  found  no  correlation  between  suggestibility  as 
measured  by  the  warmth  illusion  and  suggestibility  as  meas- 
ured by  his  flight-of-colors  test,  Chojeeki  no  correlations  be- 
tween the  results  of  his  three  methods,  viz.:  Guidi's  'stove.' 
Ochorowicz's  'hypnoscope'  and  Binet's  progressive  lines. 
Okabe's  tests  afforded  the  following  low  correlations  with  other 
forms  of  suggestibility  tests:  with  progressive  lines   (Tes1   42) 


252  [618] 


SUGGESTIBILITY 


0.17,  with  contradictory  suggestion  (Test  43)  0.21,  with  di- 
rective suggestion  (Test  43)  0.20,  with  the  weight  illusions 
(Tests  40  and  41)  none. 


TABLE  127 

Suggestibility  to  Warmth,  as  Related  to  Age.     187  Cases   (Ghiidi) 


Age 

Per  cent,  suggestible. 


40.9 


51.8 


9    1 10   11 
62.5  i  50  40 


12      13 

33.3 '  21.4 


14 

27.3 


15 
33.3 


REFERENCES 

(1)  A.  Chojecki,  Contribution  a  l'etude  de  la  suggestibilite.    ArPs(f), 
11 :  1911,  182-186. 

(2)  G.  Guidi.  Recherches  experimentales  sur  la  suggestibihte.    ArPs 
(f),  8:  1908,  49-54. 

(3)  W.   D.   Scott,   Personal  differences   in  suggestibility.     PsR,   17: 
1910.  147-154. 

(4)  E.  W.  Scripture,  Tests  on  school  children.    EdR,  5:  1893,  52-61. 

(5)  C.  E.  Seashore,  Measurements  of  illusions  and  hallucinations  in 
normal  life.    SdYalePsLab,  3:  1895,  1-67,  especially  30-32. 

(6)  M.  H.  Small,  The  suggestibility  of  children.     PdSe,  4:  1S96,  176- 
220,  especially  183-186. 


CHAPTER    XI 

Tests  of  Imagination  and  Invention 

Pagination,  like  most  of  the  Btock  psychological  terms,  has 
the  misfortune  to  be  used  in  several  different  ways.     In  popu 
lar  usage,  imagination  commonly    implies  something  fanciful 

;ii)d  unreal;  we  condemn  a  runior,  for  example,  i>,\  dubbing  ii 
"a  mere  figment  of  the  imagination."  In  psychology,  imagina- 
tion has  both  a  genera]  and  a  specific  meaning.  Broadly  speak- 
ing, imagination  is  equivalent  to  imaging,  or  thinking  in 
images,  as  over  against  perceiving — re-presentation  as  con- 
trasted wiili  presentation.  But  tin-  psychologist  also  differeu 
tiates  between  imaging  which  refers  to  Bonie  part  of  one's  past 
experience  I  memory)  and  imaging-,  which,  though  necessarily 
based  upon  this  same  material,  presents  the  material  in  new 
forms  or  patterns,  and  which  is  not  felt  to  refer  definitely  t" 
some  part  of  one's  past  experience.  This  latter  is  imagination 
in  the  specific,  or  narrower  meaning  of  the  term. 

A  further  distinction  is  made  between  imagination  which 
occurs  under  passive  ai  tent  ion,  as  illustrated  in  reverie,  musing, 
or  dreaming,  and  imagination  which  occurs  tinder  active  at  ten 
lion,  and  which  is  marked  by  persistent,  purposeful  efforl  to 
dissociate  former  combinations  of  experience  and  to  reorganize 
them  into  some  new  plan.  We  have,  then,  a  distinction  between 
passive  imagination  and  active,  creative,  or  productive  imagi 
nation. 

The  tests  of  this  chapter  are  designed  both  to  secure  indica 
lions  of  the  wealth  of  spontaneous  imagery  in  phantasy,  and  to 
measure  capacity  for  creative  or  inventive  thinking. 

In  so  far  as  intelligence  denotes  not  merely  good  attention 
and  good  memory,  but  also  inventive  capacity,  ability  to  plan 
and  organize,  to  anticipate,  or  to  "put  two  and  two  together" 
fEbbinghaus'  konibmierende  Tatigkeit),  in  so  far  must  the  at- 
tempt to  measure  intelligence  employ  tests  of  productive  imagi- 
nation and  invention.  It  goes  without  saying  that  the  tests 
here  described  do  not  exhaust  the  possibilities  of  investigation 

253  [619] 


254    [620]  IMAGINATION    AND   INVENTION 

in  this  important  field  of  mental  activity.  Undoubtedly,  new 
tests  will  be  devised  which  will  prove  of  value  in  supplementing 
those  heretofore  employed.  We  need  especially  a  series  of  tests 
of  inventive  capacity,  of  graded  difficulty,  which  shall  put  less 
emphasis  upon  linguistic  attainments. 

TEST  45 

Ink-blots. — In  their  discussion  of  a  proposed  series  of  tests 
for  the  examination  of  individual  differences  in  mental  traits. 
Binet  and  Henri,  in  1895,  suggested  that  fertility  of  visual 
imagination  might  be  investigated  by  means  of  a  series  of  ink- 
blots. Two  years  later,  but  independently,  G.  Dearborn  pub- 
lished brief  suggestions  for  making  a  series  of  blots,  and  in  the 
following  year  described  the  results  of  the  use  of  120  blots  in 
the  case  of  16  Harvard  students  and  professors.  Since  then 
Kirkpatrick  has  tried  the  ink-blot  test  with  public  school  chil- 
dren of  8  elementary  grades;  Miss  Sharp  has  followed  the  sug- 
gestion of  Binet  and  Henri  in  a  study  of  individual  psychology 
upon  graduate  students  in  Cornell  University,  and  Pyle  has 
published  preliminary  averages  for  different  ages. 

The  ink-blot  test  is  commonly  classed  as  a  test  of  passive 
imagination,  under  the  assumption  that  £  simply  looks  at  the 
blot  and  allows  his  associative  processes  to  suggest  to  him 
whatever  'pictures'  they  may.  In  practise,  however,  8  is  quite 
likely  to  search  actively  for  these  associations,  so  that  the 
mental  activity  concerned  is,  perhaps,  more  allied  to  active 
than  to  passive  imagination. 

Materials.— Standard  series  of  ink-blots,  numbered  from  1 

to  20.    Stop-watch.    Paper  properly  prepared  for  recording  fif's 

statements. 

The  primary  difficulty  heretofore  existing  in  the  application  of  the  ink- 
blot test  has  been  the  lack  of  standardized  material.  To  meet  this  diffi 
culty,  the  author  has  prepared  the  series  of  blots  just  mentioned  by  using 
zinc-block  prints,  so  that  investigators  may  now  apply  the  same  series 
of  blots,  and  thus  secure  strictly  comparable  data.  Unfortunately,  this 
series  has  not  yet  been  applied  upon  a  sufficiently  extensive  scale  to 
render  it  possible  to  publish  norms  of  performance  for  the  test. 

Method.— (a)  Full  procedure.  Instruct  8  as  follows:  "I 
have  here  a  series  of  20  odd-shaped  ink-blots.     I  want  you  to 


CB8T  45  :  iNK-BLOTfi  1021]    250 

take  them  in  order  from  1  to  20,  one  at  a  time,  to  look  them  over 
at  your  leisure,  and  to  tell  me  (or  write  down  on  a  numbered 
blank)  what  things  you  can  sec  in  each  blot.  Try  them  in  dif- 
ferent positions.  Of  coarse,  these  blots  are  not  really  intended 
to  be  pictures  of  anything,  but  l  want  to  see  whether  your 
imagination  will  suggest  pictures  of  things  in  them,  just  as 
you  sometimes  try  i<»  Bee  what  objects  you  can  make  "in  of 
clouds."  Lei  8  take  his  own  time.  Especially  with  younger 
8%  it  is  better  for  /■;  t<>  record  tin-  results,  so  that  8  may  be  per- 
fectly tree  to  enumerate  as  many  things  as  are  suggested  to  him. 

Kirkpatrick  used  only  four  blots,  and  allowed  each  pupil  one  minute  to 
came  as  many  associations  as  possible  Cor  each  blot.  .Miss  sharp  used  10 
blots,  aud  allowed  only  5  minutes  for  the  (whole?)  test. 

The  test  may  be  conducted  with  a  group  of  S's  by  distributing  the 
cards,  and  having  them  passed  successively  from  member  to  member  of 
the  group  until  each  8  has  written  his  associations  for  each  card,  but 
tbis  method  has  obvious  disadvantages. 

(b)  Shorter  procedure.  Following  the  method  used  by  Dear- 
born, arrange  the  20  cards  face  down  in  a  pile,  with  the  20th 
card  at  the  bottom,  the  1st  at  the  top,  and  the  numbered  edges 
toward  8.  Instruct  #  as  follows:  '-Each  of  these  20  cards  has 
on  it  an  odd-shaped  ink  blot.  When  I  say  'now,'  turn  over  the 
first  card  in  this  way  I  illustrating  the  movement  that  will  ex- 
pose the  face  of  card  No.  1  with  the  numbered  edge  toward  flf]. 
Look  at  the  ink-blot,  without  turning  the  card  in  any  other  posi 
t ion,  and  say  'now'  i  or  tap  on  Ihe  table)  as  soon  as  you  have 
thought  of  something  that  the  blot  resembles.  Of  course,  the 
blot  is  not  really  intended  to  be  a  picture  of  anything,  but  1 
want  to  see  whether  your  imagination  will  suggest  some  'pic- 
ture' in  it,  just  as  you  sometimes  try  to  see  what  object  yon 
can  make  out  of  a  cloud."  Give  the  command  'now';  start  the 
Stop-watch  at  the  same  time.  When  S  gives  his  signal,  stop  the 
watch,  record  the  time  and  the  object  or  association  given  by  8. 
Continue  in  the  same  manner  with  the  remaining  cards.1 


'The  method  proposed  by  Pyle  (allowing  .'!  min.  for  writing  the  first 
thing  suggested  by  each  card  in  the  order  l  to  20)  is  a  modification  of 
Dearborn's  method  for  the  purpose  of  making  group  tests.  It  suffers 
from  the  defects  already  pointed  out  (Ch.  II,  pp.  8-11)  as  characteristic 
of  tests  in  which  speed  is  made  a  measure  of  performance,  in  which 
written  responses  are  introduced  and  in  which  a  time-limit  instead  of  a 
work-limit  is  employed. 


256    [622J  IMAGINATION    AND    INVENTION 

Treatment  of  Data.— In  the  full  procedure,  the  score  is 
based  upon  the  average  or  total  number  of  associations ;  in  the 
shorter  procedure,  upon  the  average  speed  of  the  single  associa- 
tions. It  is  also  possible  to  form  some  estimate,  in  either  case, 
of  the  type,  richness  and  variety  of  fif's  imagery  by  classifying 
the  associations  after  some  such  plan  as  that  illustrated  below 
from  Miss  Sharp's  results. 

Typical  Results. — The  following  associations  for  the  20 
cards  of  the  standard  series  are  taken  from  the  records  of  sev- 
eral adults,  and  will  serve  to  indicate  the  variety  that  may  be 
expected  when  the  records  of  several  &'s  are  compared.  Note 
the  frequent  reference  to  animals. 

(1)  A  lady  seated  on  a  couch.  A  witch  riding  on  a  new  moon 
across  the  sky.  A  moose's  head.  A  woman,  sitting  on  a  bank 
of  shrubs,  waving  a  handkerchief.    Fir  tree.    Dragon  in  woods. 

(2)  Child,  crouching  in  fear.  Man  with  grotesque  features. 
Ugly  old  colored  woman.  Old  man  seated.  Back  of  bear.  Lion 
crouching.    Tree  uprooted. 

(3)  A  banner.  A  right-angled  triangle.  The  God  Billiken. 
An  Egyptian  idol.  A  jade-stone  idol.  A  foot.  Dog  sitting  on 
hind  legs.    Man  shooting. 

(4)  A  large  beetle.  A  boat  load  of  excursionists.  A  lobster. 
A  spider.  Potatoes.  A  dirigible  balloon  of  the  Zeppelin  type, 
with  a  cloud  of  steam  or  smoke  overhead,  and  a  grappling- 
anchor  trailing  below.  Two  trees  and  roots.  Stockings  on 
clothes-line. 

(5)  A  pig.  A  woman  with  a  big  head  of  hair.  A  butterfly. 
A  hole  through  the  ice.  A  girl  wearing  a  tam-o-shanter  cap. 
Human  liver  and  heart.    A  rock.    An  oyster  shell. 

(6)  Woman  running  and  holding  her  skirt.  Woman  with  a 
muff  in  her  left  hand,  and  her  hat  almost  blown  off.  A  broken 
bellows.  Merry  Widow  waltz.  A  dog  on  a  post.  An  island  and 
lake. 

(7)  Large  caterpillar  on  a  horse's  shoulders.  A  devil  bending 
over  something.  An  old  man.  A  dream  monster.  A  woman 
with  flowers.    Unicorn.    Pig. 

(8)  Human  torso.  Hot  and  cold  water  faucet  in  a  bath  tub. 
Person  with  head  bent  forward,  holding  sticks  in  her  hand. 


iks  I    1.'.  .  iNK'BMTfi  623]    251 

Heads  of  two  birds  irving  to  swalluw  what  is  between  them.    A 
frog.    A  vase.    Vertebra  <>f  back  bone. 

(9)  A  goat  with  a  pack  on  his  back.  A  turkey  with  drooping 
wings  trailing  on  the  ground.    A  tree.    A  goose's  head. 

(.10)  Ugly  man's  head.  Bead  and  arm  of  a  woman  with  a 
lighted  candle  in  her  hand.  A  da.hshnnd  running  off  with 
some  one's  cape.    A  mosquito  pupa.    A  tree. 

(11)  Map  of  Scotland  and  Ireland.  Owl  that  lias  jnsi  placed 
a  fish  before  him  on  the  branch  of  a  tree.  Borne  specimen  in 
geology.  A  tree  blown  in  a  \u-.\\\  -ale.  A  tiger  under  a  tret-. 
A  conch  shell. 

(12)  Map  of  United  States  and  part  of  Canada  A  chicken 
lying  on  its  back.  An  Indian  head.  A  woman  sitting  on  a 
cliff  under  a  tree,  reading  a  novel.  A  buffalo  running.  By- 
droids. 

(13)  A  flying  squirrel.  The  skin  of  a  bear.  A  hen  sitting  on 
a  nest.    A  dog  running. 

(14)  A  crab.  A  bat  with  outspread  wings.  A  moth.  Alien 
rological  slide.     A  flower.     An  insulator. 

(15)  Section  of  medulla  oblongata.  Two  nuns  bowing  their 
heads  together.  A  tulip.  A  false  mask.  A  crab.  Head  of  a 
fish.  A  plate  of  false  teeth.  A  design-unil  of  two  bears  with 
heads  together. 

(10)  Closed  hand  with  thumb  and  little  linger,  or  a  sixth 
finger,  projecting.    A  loving  cup.    A  tea-pot.    Ahead. 

(17)  A  root.  A  porcupine.  An  Indian  head.  A  nerve  cell 
Sponge  dropping  water. 

(18)  A  Chinese  dragon,  as  seen  on  packages  of  tire  -crackers. 
Branch  of  a  gnarled  oak.  A  lizard.  An  old  woman  and  child. 
A  man  with  knees  bent. 

(19)  Bird  alighting  on  a  nest.  A  living  squirrel.  Rear  of  a 
cat  in  rapid  motion.    A  land).    A  duck. 

(20)  Man  pulling  off  his  sweater.  Runner  leaning  forward 
to  start  a  foot-race.  Photographer,  with  focussing  cloth  over 
his  head.  Crocodile  suspended  by  the  head.  Bear  with  the 
grandmother's  night-cap  and  gown,  as  illustrated  in  Little  Red 
Riding  Flood.    An  elephant  seated. 


258  [624 J 


IMAGINATION    AND    INVENTION 


General  Results.— (1)  Speed  of  association.  In  1920  trials, 
Dearborn  found  the  average  time  for  making  a  single  associa- 
tion to  a  blot  to  be  10.3  sec.  This  seemingly  long  time  may  be 
due  to  the  difficult  nature  of  some  of  the  blots  in  his  series. 

The  children  aged  8  to  14  tested  by  Pyle  with  the  author's 
blots,  but  with  the  written  response,  averaged  from  6.4  to  12.0 
responses  in  3  min.  His  adults  averaged  10.6  for  the  men  and 
9.8  for  the  women. 

(2)  Dependence  on  age.  Kirkpatrick  states  that  "younger 
children  seemed  more  suggestible  or  imaginative,  as  they  named 
more  spots"  (Table  128).  Pyle's  tables  show  a  similar  tendency. 


TABLE  128 
Average  Number  of  'Names'  Given  to  Ink-Blots   {Kirkpatrick) 


GRADE 

i 

ii 

in 

V 

VI 

VII 

VIII 

Average 

2.9 

2.5 

2.6 

1.8 

1.9 

1.7 

2.1 

2.2 

It  is  evident  that  something  besides  a  simple  decline  of  'imagination' 
with  age  is  exhibited  in  this  table.  In  explanation,  Kirkpatrick  says  :  "The 
younger  children  seemed  to  have  no  doubt  whatever  of  the  spot  being  a 
picture  of  the  object  they  named,  while  the  older  children  simply  said  'it 
is  some  like'  or  'it  looks  a  little  like,'  'a  dog,'  'cloud,'  or  whatever  else 
was  suggested.  This  superiority  of  the  small  children  is  striking  when 
we  consider  that  the  number  of  mental  images  that  they  have  is  much 
smaller  than  that  possessed  by  older  children,  who  may  name  a  part  of 
the  body  or  the  map  of  a  country  or  something  else  that  the  younger 
children  know  nothing  about. 

"The  smaller  number  of  objects  seen  in  the  spots  by  the  children  of  the 
4th,  5th,  and  6th  grades  is  probably  to  be  explained  by  the  fact  that 
children  of  those  aces  have  become  more  critical  in  their  sense-perception, 
as  their  ideas  have  become  more  definite,  and  as  they  have  learned  from 
life's  experiences  and  from  training  to  be  more  careful  in  their  judg- 
ments. The  older  pupils  of  the  7th  and  8th  grades,  on  the  other  hand, 
have  passed  into  another  stage  in  which  they  realize  that  a  picture  is 
not  necessarily  this  or  that,  but  may  resemble  any  one  of  several  things, 
hence  they  are  not  afraid  to  say  what  it  looks  like." 

(3)  Dependence  on  occupation.  Dearborn  believes  that,  at 
least  in  maturer  8%  the  results  of  the  ink-blot  test  are  condi- 
tioned, not  so  much  by  age  or  sex  directly,  as  by  habits  of  living, 
occupation,  and  other  environmental  factors:  thus,  we  should 


rusr 45 :  ink-blots  [Our.;   299 

expect  characteristically  different  results  from  the  teal  when 
applied,  for  example,  t<>  artists,  tanners,  laborers,  professional 
men.  to  the  city-bred  or  the  country-bred,  etc. 

in  Dependence  on  race.  Pyle's  averages  (5b)  show  that 
negroes  are  nearly  as  good  as  whites  in  the  ink  hint  test. 

(5)  l  mil  lit!  mil  differences,  both  in  speed,  number  and  type 
of  association  seem  to  have  been  been  clearly  marked  and  fairly 
constant,  whenever  the  test  has  been  applied.  Tims,  in  Dear- 
born's single-association  method,  the  highest  agreement  in  the 
answers  of  his  fif's  for  any  one  card  was  but  40  per  cent.,  while 
for  several  cards,  no  two  fif's  gave  the  same  answer. 

As  regards  fertility  of  imagination,  Miss  Sharp  noted  that 
the  most  imaginative  8  in  her  group  saw  81  objects,  the  least 
imaginative  but  27  objects  in  the  same  10  blots.  The  same  in- 
vestigator believes,  however,  that  all  S's  might  be  roughly  di- 
vided into  two  groups,  (a)  the  constructive  or  imaginative, 
who  put  together  concrete  details  "in  such  a  way  as  to  form 
a  significant  whole/'  and  (b)  the  matter-of-fact,  or  scientific 
type,  given  more  to  analysis  than  to  creative  synthesis. - 

As  examples  of  this  difference,  the  following  reports  from  two  of  Miss 
Sharp's  8's  may  be  quoted:   both  refer  to  the  same  blot. 

(1)  Associations  few  and  non-constructive.  "An  eagle.  Stuffed  tur- 
key.    Head  and  neck  (if  a  musk-rat." 

i  •_*  t  Associations  numerous  and  constructive.  "Giraffe.  Prehistoric 
bird  in  flight.  Fairy  riding  mi  a  bumble-bee.  Bit  of  tropical  jungle,  with 
trailing  gray  mosses  and  pools  of  water.  Japanese  lady.  Hit  of  land- 
scape wilh  two  hills  and  a  valley  between  an  army  encamped  under  one 
hill.  Moss-grown  log  floating  in  water.  Fabulous  monster  (griffin  per- 
haps) walking  Off  <>n  his  bind  legs  witli  a  small  Hottentot  umler  bis 
arm." 

(6)  Qualitative  classification.  It  is  often  possible  to  classify 
the  associations  peculiar  to  a  given  8.  Thus,  Miss  Sharp  men 
lions  as  classiticatory  groups:  I '/ 1  commonplace,  everyday 
objects,  such  as  domestic  utensils,  tools,  plants,  and  particu- 
larly animals,  (o)  scientific  objects,  such  as  geometric  figures, 
schematic  drawings,  (c)  objects  suggested  by  literary  remi- 
niscence, and   (d)   objects  from  fable  and  mythology,  such  as 


2It  is  tempting  to  regard  this  classification  as  Identical  with  the  com- 
mon classification  o(  laboratory  fif's  into  'subjective'  and  'objective'  ob- 
servers. 


260     [626]  IMAGINATION    AND    INVENTION 

centaurs,  dragons,  witches,  fairies,  etc.  Some  &'s  exhibit  va- 
riety of  association,  in  that  they  cite  objects  that  belong  to 
several  of  these  groups;  others  are  much  less  fertile  in  imagina- 
tion and  confine  themselves  largely  to  a  single  type  of  imagery. 

REFERENCES 

(1)  A.  Binet  et  V.  Henri,  La  psychologie  individuelle.  AnPs,  2: 
1895  (189G),  411-4G5,  especially  444. 

(2)  G.  Dearborn,  Blots  of  ink  in  experimental  psychology.  PsR,  4: 
1S97,  390-1. 

(3)  G.  Dearborn,  A  study  of  imaginations.    AmJPs,  9:  1898,  183-190. 

(4)  E.  Kirkpatrick,  Individual  tests  of  school  children.  PsR,  7: 
1900,  274-280. 

(5)  W.  H.  Pyle,  (a)  The  examination  of  school  children.  New  York, 
1913,  pp.  33-35.  (b)  The  mind  of  the  negro  child.  School  and  Society,  1 : 
1915,  357-360. 

(6)  Stella  E.  Sharp,  Individual  psychology:  a  study  in  psychological 
method.    AmJPs,  10 :  April,  1899,  329-391. 

TEST  46 

Linguistic  invention. — The  ink-blot  test  serves  primarily  as 
a  test  of  visual  imagery.  But  an  even  more  fruitful  source  of 
individual  differences  in  creative  ability  may  be  found  in  lin- 
guistic invention.  Miss  Sharp,  acting  upon  the  suggestions  of 
Binet  and  Henri,  tested  what  she  terms  'literary  imagination,' 
in  three  ways,  viz. :  by  the  development  of  sentences,  by  the  de- 
velopment of  a  given  theme,  and  by  the  choice  of  a  topic  for 
composition. 

The  idea  of  presenting  a  number  of  words  to  be  joined  into 
a  sentence  has  been  elaborated  in  various  ways.  The  assign 
meut  of  three  words  was  employed  by  Masselon  in  1902,  and 
this  test  has,  on  that  account,  been  referred  to  by  some  writers 
as  the  "Masselon  method."  It  forms  one  test  in  the  well-known 
Binet-Simon  series,  and  was  one  of  the  tests  used  by  Miss  Sharp 
in  her  investigation  of  the  mental  types  of  adult  #'s.  The  re- 
duction of  the  number  of  terms  supplied,  to  two  has  been 
strongly  recommended  by  Meumann,  who  selected  the  two  terms 
in  a  special  manner  (see  below),  while  another  variation  of 
the  two-word  test  has  been  tried  by  Burt  and  by  Wyatt,  in 
which  8  is  given  a  series  of  10  words  to  be  joined  together  suc- 
cessively, by  pairs,  in  a  series  of  sentences.  On  the  other  hand, 
the  number  of  terms  has  been  increased  to  5,  8  or  10  with  the  in- 


TFST  4<",  :  LINGUISTIC  INVENTION  K>27]    201 

Btroction  to  invent  a  story  containing  the  prescribed  words 
(invention  of  Btories).  Thia  method  evidentlj  Btands  midway 
between  the  method  of  Bentence-formation  and  tin-  method  of 
development  of  a  theme,  while  h\  a  little  fnrther  extension  the 

well-known     Ebbinghaos    c pletion    method     (Test     ix»     is 

reached,  li  needs  little  reflection  to  understand  that  the 
nature  of  these  various  tests  becomes  decidedly  varied  as  the 
number  and  aature  of  the  supplied  terms  is  varied. 

The  method  of  completing  a  prose  passage  in  which  a  large 
amount  of  the  original  text  is  supplied  is  embodied  in  Test  18. 
The  present  test  includes  the  method  <>f  sentence-formation 
known  as  Masselon's  method,  the  method  of  sentence  formation 
de\  ised  ii\  Meuniann,  the  completion  of  sentences  used  by  Binet, 
the  invention  <»r  Btories,  and  the  development  of  a  theme. 

Before  undertaking  these  formal  tests,  however,  it  is  desir- 
able, if  the  purpose  in  mind  is  to  make  a  qualitative  study  of 
the  mental  type  of  individual  fif's,  to  institute  a  preliminary 
inquiry  concerning  the  general  literary  tastes  and  habits  of 
each  8.  The  exact  nature  of  this  inquiry  must,  naturally,  l»«' 
adapted  to  the  age  and  training  of  the  Sf's:  the  following  are 
some  of  the  points  thai  have  been  covered  by  investigators:  (1) 
list  of  favorite  books,  (2)  statement  of  favorite  type  of  reading, 
(3)  statement  of  the  magazines,  periodicals,  newspapers,  etc., 
ordinarily  read,  (4)  list  of  books  (outside  of  classroom  or  pro- 
fessional work)  read  during  the  lasl  year,  (5)  statement  of 
favorite  games  and  evidence  of  enjoymenl  of  games,  like  chess 
and  checkers,  that  demand  creative  activity  and  foresight,  (6) 
fondness  for  i he  theater,  drama,  music,  painting  and  other 
forms  <d'  art,  etc.,    iTi   experience  in   creative   literary   work. 

A.       SENTENCE-FORMATION    (MASSELON    METHOD) 

Method. — Ask  8  to  write  as  man}  sentences  as  possible  con- 
taining the  three  nouns:  citizen,  horse,  decree.  Each  sentence 
must  contain  all  three  nouns,  though  it  may  contain  othei 
well.  The  sentences  are  to  be  as  varied  as  possible.  Five  min- 
utes are  allowed.  Continue  the  test  with  four  more  sets  of 
nouns,  and  afterward  make  similar  tests  with  five  Bets  of  verbs. 


2G2    [628]  IMAGINATION    AND    INVENTION 

For  the  noun  tests,  use  as  additional  sets:  (2)  bell,  ground, 
owner,  (3)  skill,  modification,  picture,  (4)  cup,  fraction,  money, 
(5)  letter,  law,  summer.  For  verbs  use  (1)  bless,  destroy, 
write,  (2)  make,  correspond,  remain,  (3)  require,  choose,  run. 
(4)  see,  find,  throw,  (5)  remember,  put,  depart.  In  the  noun 
tests,  $  is  permitted  to  use  either  singular  or  plural  forms,  and 
possessive  as  well  as  nominative  or  objective  cases ;  in  the  verb 
tests,  he  may  use  any  form  of  the  given  verb,  e.  g.,  blessed,  to 
bless,  will  bless,  etc.,  as  well  as  bless. 

The  tests  may  be  conducted  with  individuals  or  with  groups: 
but  it  is  preferable,  especially  with  young  S%  to  work  indi- 
vidually and  to  let  $  dictate  the  sentences  instead  of  writing 
them. 

Treatment  of  Data. — The  quantitative  score  is  determined 
by  averaging  the  number  of  sentences  written  by  8.  The  qual- 
ity of  work  may  be  graded  upon  any  convenient  stale,  c.  g.}  1  to 
5,  corresponding  to  five  degrees  of  excellence.  Miss  Sharp  used 
the  symbols  A,  B,  and  C,  and  indicated  intermediate  grades  by 
the  use  of  —  and  +•  For  purposes  of  computation,  she  then 
assigned  numerical  values  to  these  symbols,  as  follows :  .1 — 
=  40,  A  =  50,  A  +  =  60,  B—  =  80,  B  =  100,  B-f  =  120,  C— 
=  160,  C  =  200,  C  +  =  240.  In  practise,  this  scoring  is  vir- 
tually equivalent  to  estimating  quality  of  work  in  terms  of  aver- 
age number  of  words  per  sentence,  and  that  simpler  method 
may  be  used  for  the  qualitative  score. 

Typical  Results. —  (1)  The  following  are  selected  single  sen- 
tences reported  by  Miss  Sharp  for  the  first  test : 

1.  "Decrees  are  made  for  citizens,  not  for  horses."  (The  connection 
of  the  words  here  is  simple  and  mechanical.) 

2.  "That  stalwart  citizen  on  the  great  gray  horse  is  a  man  to  be 
trusted  with  the  decree."     (This  implies  a  concrete  situation. "I 

3.  "All  the  well-to-do  citizens  of  the  village,  each  mounted  on  a  horse, 
rode  through  the  streets,  proclaiming  their  dissatisfaction  with  the  new 
decree."    (A  situation  is  here  more  fully  outlined.) 

(2)  The  following  is  a  full  set  of  sentences  written  by  a 
graduate  student,  in  5  min.,  for  the  first  assignment : 

1.  A  decree  was  posted  that  the  citizen  should  not  abuse  the  horse. 

2.  The  horse  of  the  citizen  was  sold  by  official  decree. 

3.  "Here,"  said  the  citizen,  "is  the  horse  mentioned  in  the  decree.'' 


TEST  46:  LINGUISTIC   INVENTION 


6291   263 


4.  Early  in  Arabian  history,  a  decree  raised  to  a  higher  caste,  a  citizen 
who  owned  a  borse,  but  later,  possession  was  sufficient  for  better  stand- 
ing, and  the  law  was  not  Deeded. 

5.  if  a  citizen  keep  a  horse,  it  is  a  decree  thai  he  ose  it  kindly. 

•  ;.  "What  a  funny  decree,"  exclaimed  the  citizen,  when  he  read  of 
the  horse  Bun-bonnet  law. 

7.  The  decree  was  signed  that  the  borse  had  kicked  the  citizen,  and 
therefore  the  injured  man  could  collect  damages  from  the  owner  of  the 
animal. 

8.  "Time  is  up,"  cried  the  citizen,  stop-watch  in  hand.  "I  hereby  d< 
that  you  write  the  word  borse  and  Btop  at  once."     [Faulty  on  account  of 
the  DSe  Of  "decree'  as  a  verb.] 

(3)  The  following  represeni  groups  of  sentences  written  for 
the  author  by  two  college  students  (selected  a1  random  from  a 
Dumber  of  papers)  for  the  fourth  set  of  verbs.  The  relatively 
greater  variety  of  the  second  group  is  clear. 

A.  1.      "1  saw  the  hook  and  tried  to  lind  a  place  in  which  to  throw  it." 

2.  "I   threw  the  Cat  in  the  creek  and  turned  to  see  If  anyone  had  found 

me  out." 

3.  "I  see  that  I  can  find  nothing  to  throw  at  him." 

4.  "You  see,  it  was  this  way.  I  simply  round  the  hatchel  and  threw  it." 

B.  1.     "The  child  saw  a  horse,  found  a  stone  and  threw  it  at  him." 

2.  "When  you  lind  a  clover,  see  it  it  has  four  leaves:  it'  not.  throw- 
it  away." 

3.  "Throw  the  paper  OUl  of  the  window  and  see  if  it  will  find  a 
landing  place." 

4.  "Find  me  a  pencil,  then  I  will  see  it'  I  can  lind  out  the  solution  to 
the  problem  which  is  on  the  paper  that  you  threw  into  the  basket." 

5.  '"the  hoy  found  an  apple,  hut  when  he  saw  it  was  decayed,  he 
threw    it  away." 

Conclusions.1—  Hi  Dependence  on  part  of  speech  assigned. 
All  S'b  lend  to  write  fewer,  bul  better  sentences  with  verbs 
than  with  nonns. 

TABLE  129 

Scores  of  Seven  .[, lulls  in  Developing  Sentences   (Sharp). 


FORM  OF   TEST 

QUANTITY  OF   WORK 

QUALITY   OF    WORK 

Average 

Maximum 

M'nimum 

Aver  ko 

M:i\  imum 

Minimum 

Nouns  'given'... 
Verbs  'given'... 

4.6 
3.8 

6.6 
5.8 

3.2 
2.5 

79            113              55 
93            133              54 

"These  are  all  drawn  from  the  work  of  Mis<  Sharp 


264     [630]  IMAGINATION    AND    INVENTION 

(2)  The  rank  of  8%  both  in  quality  and  quantity  of  work,  is 
the  same  when  nouns  and  when  verbs  are  assigned. 

(3)  "In  general,  the  subjects  who  made  the  most  sentences 
made  the  most  elaborate,  and  those  who  made  the  fewest  sen- 
tences made  also  the  simplest  and  most  unimaginative." 

(4)  This  test  correlates  with  the  ink-blot  test,  in  so  far  as 
those  &'s  who  show  most  constructive  capacity  with  the  blots 
also  show  most  constructive  capacity  in  the  development  of  sen- 
tences. 

B.       SENTENCE-FORMATION    (MEUMANN's    METHOD) 

The  Masselon  method,  according  to  Meumann,  is  less  well 
fitted  to  bring  out  differences  in  intelligence  than  his  own 
method  of  presenting  but  two  words,  so  selected  that  a  number 
of  different  relations  can  be  worked  out  between  them,  only  one 
of  which,  or  at  least  only  a  few  of  which,  can  be  regarded  as 
being  really  appropriate,  pertinent  and  sufficiently  definite 
as  to  evince  good  sense  and  a  real  appreciation  of  the  relation. 
This  appropriate  combination  of  the  two  words  into  a  sentence 
is  accomplished  only  when  8  introduces  a  third  relational  ele- 
ment that  supplies  the  'point'  needed  to  round  out  the  thought. 

Method. — Explain  to  8  that  he  is  to  make  a  sentence  with 
each  pair  of  words.  By  the  aid  of  illustrative  examples  make 
it  clear  that  there  are  two  ways  in  which  any  pair  could  be 
joined,  the  one  correct  enough,  perhaps,  but  banal  and  loose, 
the  other  logical,  sensible  and  specific,  and  that  the  latter  form 
is  the  one  desired.  For  example,  the  words  snow — melts  could 
be  rendered  as  "The  snow  melts"  or  as  "Snow  melts  when  the 
warm  sun  shines  on  it."  Again,  the  words  square — sides  could 
be  rendered  as  "A  square  has  sides"  or  as  "A  square  has  four 
sides  of  equal  length."  Similarly,  from  the  pair  automobiles — 
tires  could  be  obtained  "Automobiles  have  tires"  or  "Auto- 
mobiles have  pneumatic  tires  to  make  them  ride  easily." 

When  these  instructions  have  been  grasped,  give  $  the  fol- 
lowing 10  pairs  of  terms  and  allow  him  all  the  time  he  desires 
to  write  one  sentence  of  the  'pointed'  type  for  each  pair:  (1) 
donkey — beatings,  (2)  soldiers — country,  (3)  city — streets, 
(4)    sun — noon.    (5)    pine — winter,    (6)    drink — poverty,    (7) 


n.-i    16:  LINGUISTIC  invention  [631]   265 

cat — punished,  (8)  sky— red,  (9)   water— hill,  (10)   teacher- 
pleased.1 

Results.  The  following  types  of  answers  maj  be  readily 
distinguished : 

(a)  The  dictated  words  are  written,  bul  DOthing  else. 

i  h )  The  given  words  arc  joined  in  a  nonsense  statement,  ( .  g.} 
"The  city  is  a  siree!  .** 

(c)  A  number  of  successive  sememes  are  casl  in  a  very  sim- 
ple form  which  is  the  same  in  each,  e.  </..  "A  donkey  lias  heat 
tags."    "Soldiers  have  a  country."    "A  city  lias  streets." 

(d  i  The  written  statement  is  incorrect,  but  such  as  to  sug- 
gesl  that  8  had  the  glimmerings  of  an  idea  that  failed  of  ex- 
pression, possibly  on  account  of  some  difficulty  in  the  nse  of 
Language,  e.  ,'/..  "To  drink  is  poverty." 

(e)  The  sentence  is  logically  correct,  but  indefinite,  too 
loose,  general  and  banal,  e.  </..  "A  city  has  streets.*' 

(/)   The  words  are  combined  into  a  specific  statement,  but 
one  that  is  imaginative  and  uot  expressive  of  the  correct  eon 
nection,  e.  //..  "Once  upon  a  time  there  were  three  soldiers  who 
lived  in  a  beautiful  country." 

(g)  The  sentence  is  definite,  logical,  correct  and  pertinent. 
embodying  the  right  causal  connection,  e.  </..  "In  the  city  the 
streets  are  wide  and  paved  with  brick."  "Good  soldiers  are 
ready  to  die  for  their  country.*' 

Notes.-  The  'sentence-construction5  or  'sentence-formation' 
test  used  by  Wyatt  and  by  Burt  consists  in  presenting  a  series 
of  10  words  such  as  circle,  moon,  night,  slet />.  etc.  each  one  of 
which  is  fairly  obviously  connected  with  the  next  and  then 
allowing  each  S  2.5  min.  to  write  a  series  id'  sentences  connect- 
ing the  successive  terms  by  pairs,  e.  </..  "The  full  moon  has  the 
form  of  a  circle."  "The  moon  shines  at  night."  etc.  Particular 
stress   is    laid   upon    the   condition    that    the   various   sentences 


The  last  two  Lave  been  Bupplied  by  the  author  to  replace  lesa  useful 
or  more  complex  combinations  in  Meumann's  list. 

'Although  Meumann  concludes  that  any  attempt  to  score  this  test 
quantitatively  must  in-  arbitrary,  it  would  Beem  possible  to  attempt  some 
numerical  comparison  or  the  wort  of  different  8's  by  assigning  a  Bcale  oi 
marks,  like  0,  I.  2,  >•('■..  for  these  several  qualitative  degrees  of  perfon 


ance. 


266    [632]  IMAGINATION    AND    INVENTION 

must  show  the  "closest  possible  connection."  In  practise  this 
instruction  is  difficult  to  make  clear,  and  the  performance  of 
/S"s  is  quite  difficult  to  score  precisely  or  fairly.  The  time  con- 
sumed in  writing  also  enters  as  a  disturbing  factor.  Burt  found 
for  this  test  a  coefficient  of  reliability  of  only  .61,  but  a  fairly 
high  correlation  with  intelligence,  0.62. 

C.       COMPLETION  OF  SENTENCES 

Materials. — Printed  forms  containing  beginnings  of  25  sen- 
tences,4 with  spaces  for  the  completion  of  each  sentence.  Piece 
of  white  cardboard.    Stop-watch. 

Method. — Give  S  the  following  instructions :  "On  this  paper 
there  are  printed  the  beginnings  of  a  number  of  sentences.  I 
am  going  to  show  these  to  you,  one  at  a  time.  As  soon  as  I  show 
you  one,  I  want  3011  to  finish  out  the  sentence.  You  may  say 
anything  you  want  to,  as  long  as  the  whole  sentence  will  make 
sense  when  you  have  finished  it.  Take  an  easy  attitude  toward 
the  test.  Don't  try  to  hurry.  Let  the.  completion  of  the  sen- 
tence develop  naturally  and  freely,  whether  it  is  long  or  short." 
If  8  fails  to  understand  what  is  wanted,  supply  him  with  an 
extra  paper  on  which  a  few  trial  sentences  have  been  written 
in  pen  and  ink,  and  show  him  how  they  might  be  completed. 
For  the  test  proper,  cover  the  entire  test-blank  with  the  card- 
board :  after  a  warning  'ready,'  expose  the  first  incomplete 
sentence.3  Start  the  watch  at  the  same  time.  Record  as 
nearly  as  possible  the  time  used  by  8  in  starting  to  complete 
the  sentence,  i.  e.,  the  time  he  takes,  after  he  reads  the  sentence, 
to  'get  an  idea.'  The  timing  should  be  done  without  *S"s  knowl- 
edge. 

Variation  of  Method. — The  printed  forms  are  arranged  to 
permit  written  tests,  either  of  individuals  or  of  groups..  With 
groups  the  timing  may  be  omitted  without  serious  detriment. 


'The  first  20  sentences  are  taken,  with  such  slight  modifications  as 
translation  has  suggested,  from  Binet.  The  last  five  (since  Bmct  prints 
but  20  of  the  25  he  recommends)  have,  been  supplied  by  the  author. 
Other  sets  of  incomplete  sentences  will  be  found  in  Weidensall  or  in 
Woolley  and  Fischer. 

'The  sentences  have  purposely  been  numbered  from  the  bottom  of  the 
page,  so  that  the  cardboard  will  not  interfere  with  S's  writing. 


TEST  40:  LINGUISTIC   INVENTION  3  ]    267 

Sonic  >s"s  give  shorter,  others  Longer  sentences  when  they  art- 
written. 

Treatment  of  Data.— Compute  the  average,  or  determine 
the  distribution,  of  the  times  Deeded  by  8  t<>  start  the  25  Ben 
tences.  For  a  qualitative  index,  estimate  as  well  as  possible 
(preferably  by  using  some  such  system  Df  scoring  as  that  de- 
scribed in  the  development-of-sentences  test)  the  general  value 
of  the  completed  sentences,  tf's  sentences  may  also,  if  desired, 
lie  classified  in  regard  to  type,  ''•  .'/••  vague  or  meaningless,  com- 
monplace, reminiscential,  imaginative,  aphoristic,  etc. 

A  more  elaborate  Bystem  of  scoring  was  attempted  by  Woolley 
and  Fischer  and  followed  by  vVeidensall  in  part.  Records  were 
kepi  of  (1)   number  of  sentences  attempted,   (2)    number  of 

sentences  correct  (in  the  sense  of  constituting  a  re;il  sentence, 
even  though  there  nii<;ht  he  some  mistakes  of  grammar),  (3) 
number  of  simple  and  of  complex  sentences,  i  n  average  quid- 
ber  of  words  written  per  sentence,  (  5  |  number  of  ideas  express  d 
in  the  sentences,  taken  collectively  i  scored  by  a  somewhat 
complex  set  of  rules),  i<J)  total  time  used  in  the  test.  (7)  time 
used  to  start  each  sentence  (classed  in  live  groups.  0-2,  3-5,  6-10, 
Ll-20  and  21-60  sec),  ami  (8)  'index'  of  ideas,  obtained  l»,\ 
dividing  (6)  by  (5).  Use  is  made  in  the  published  results. 
however,  of  only  the  2d,  5th,  7th  and  8th  of  these  scores. 

Results. —  (1)  Binet  found  characteristic  differences  in  the 
speed  of  work  of  his  two  daughters.  Armande  and  .Marguerite. 
Thus  Armande's  records  show  12  sentences  started  in  less  than 
"  sec,  4  sentences  in  from  5  to  11)  sec.  <J  in  from  10  to  20  sec, 
1  in  28  sec,  and  1  in  7(1  sec.  .Marguerite's  records,  on  the  other 
hand,  show  hut  1  sentence  started  in  less  than  5  sec.  hut  7  sen 
tences  in  less  than  10  sec.  and  the  remainder  in  much  longer 
times,  e.  .'/..  20.  50,  and  70  sec 

(2)  Binet's  two  S's  also  showed  characteristic  differences  in 
the  type  of  sentence-completion:  Armande  is  poetic  ami  imagi 
native;  Marguerite's  sentences  are  more  precise,  more  practical, 
more  in  accord  with  real  life,  less  emotional.  For  example,  for 
Sentence  1,  Armande  writes:  "]  entered  the  field  by  a  co\ 
footpath."  Marguerite  writes:  ••!  entered  the  grocery  ami 
bought  two  cents  worth  of  chocolate." 


26S    [634]  IMAGINATION    AND    INVENTION 

(3)  The  study  of  school  children  at  Cincinnati  by  Woolley 
and  Fischer  brings  out  the  following  points :  (a)  age  is  a  factor 
of  some  moment,  since  15-year-old  pupils,  when  compared  with 
14-year-old,  show  a  decided  improvement  in  number  of  correct 
sentences,  a  large  increase  in  number  of  ideas  expressed  and  a 
slight  increase  in  the  speed  of  beginning  the  sentences ;  (b)  sex 
differences  seem  to  favor  the  boys,  who  are  somewhat  superior 
to  girls  in  correctness  and  somewhat  quicker  than  girls  in  speed 
of  beginning  (there  was  no  definite  sex  difference  in  number  of 
ideas)  ;  (c)  the  test  shows  a  large  positive  correlation  with 
school  grade  attained  by  both  sexes  at  both  years,  when  per- 
formance is  scored  by  any  of  the  three  measures — number  of 
correct  sentences,  number  of  ideas  or  speed  of  response. 

(4)  Delinquents.  The  results  obtained  by  Weidensall  with 
Bedford  Reformatory  women  show  that  they  are  slower  to 
respond  than  the  Cincinnati  girls,  slower  even  than  the  Cincin- 
nati retarded  girls.  On  the  other  hand,  the  number  of  correct 
sentences  and  the  number  of  ideas  expressed  were,  contrary  to 
expectation,  greater  in  the  Bedford  group;  this  outcome  may 
be  due  to  the  conditions  under  which  the  Bedford  women  were 
tested,  or  it  may  be  connected,  one  may  surmise,  with  the 
longer  time  taken  in  starting  the  sentences.  At  Bedford  the 
ability  to  make  correct  sentences  did  not  correlate  with  school 
grade  attained  before  entering  the  institution,  but  the  speed 
with  which  the  sentences  were  started  did  correlate  with  the 
school  grade ;  in  fact,  the  poorest  &'s  took  five  times  as  long  to 
start  their  sentences  as  did  the  more  intelligent  ones. 

D.       INVENTION  OF  STORIES 

Test  No.  26  of  the  Binet-Simon  1905  series  called  for  the  con- 
struction of  a  sentence  containing  three  specified  words.  This 
test  has  been  elaborated  by  Mrs.  Squire  by  asking  not  for  a 
sentence,  but  for  a  story  about  three  words.  The  same  test, 
with  5,  S  or  10  words  given,  has  been  used  by  Winch  in  his 
comparative  study  of  memory  for  ideas  and  productive  imagi- 
nation. 

Meumann-s  somewhat  similar  test  consists  in  dictating  a 
scries  of  'cue-words'  or  phrases,  carefully  selected  as  to  nature 


ILST  -lH:  LINGUI8TIC   INVENTION 

and  number,  with  the  instructions  to  make  a  story  from  them. 
in  this  test  the  principles  involved  in  selecting  the  words  make 
the  problem  of  a  different  sort  from  that  involved  in  Winch's 
test  ;  the  conditions  are  rather  more  rigorously  drawn,  so  thai 
the  number  of  satisfactory  solutions  is  smaller.  In  some  re- 
spects,  in  fact,  .Meumann's  lest  more  nearly  resembles  the 
Ebbinghaus  completion  method  (Tes1   iv 

Method. —  (1)  For  young  8%  ask  for  a  storj  about  a  boy,  a 
/■//•'■/•and  a  ball  (Squire  test).  For  children  younger  than  10, 
and  better  for  yet  older  children,  the  story  should  be  given 
orally  and  taken  down  verbatim  b\  /.. 

{'2)  Winch's  instinct  ions,  as  given  in  writing  to  a  group  of 
i.".  year  old  N's.  were  as  follows    (8,   p.  102)  : 

"Write  a  story  containing  the  following  words:  thief,  land 
lor<!,  crab,  shake,  hotel,  bushel,  cries,  provisions,  escape,  custody. 

"You  are  to  write  the  longest  story  you  can.  because  the 
longer  the  story  is,  the  more  marks  you  will  get.  provided  that 
everything  you  write  has  something  to  do  with  the  story.  Von 
will  get  no  marks  at  all  for  them  and  only  be  wasting  your  time 
if  you  write  sentences  which  have  no  connection  with  the  rest. 
Try  and  think  out  the  story  you  are  going  to  write  before  you 
start,  and  see  that  the  progress  of  the  story  will  enable  you 
to  fit  all  the  words  in  properly." 

It  is  desirable  to  make  more  than  one  test  of  this  sort.  For 
this  purpose,  use  may  be  made  of  one  or  more  of  the  other  lists 
of  terms  used  by  Winch6  with  the  same  instructions  as  above. 
These  lists  are:  (1)  Orphan,  garden,  hungry,  station,  parents. 
clothing,  visitor,  cottage,  train,  country,  i  -  i  Snowstorm,  chit 
<tri  n.  ticket,  clod,-,  dog,  screams,  church,  basket,  river,  ice.  (3) 
Army,  hilt,  artillery,  victory,  cavalry,  tight,  captured,  brave. 
i  li  For  younger  children  (8-9  years*  :  dog,  clock,  basket,  man, 
children. 

(3)  For  Meumann's  test  E  must  take  a  simple  connected  bit 


"It  should  l»o  said  thnt  Winch's  Invention  testa  were  applied  to  chil- 
dren who  were  also  being  tested  in  'substance  memory'  with  the  aid  of 
passages  containing  terms  quite  similar  to  those  given  as  material  for 

the  invention.     This  had  undoubtedly  an  effect  upon  the  invented  Btories, 

though  Winch  asserts  thai    "the  Invented  Btbries  are,   almost    invariably. 
on  a  much  lower  plane"     (p.  101). 


270    [630]  IMAGINATION    AND    INVENTION 

of  prose  depicting  a  total  situation  and  reduce  it  to  a  series  of 
salient  cue-words.  After  giving  one  or  more  preliminary  illus- 
trations, S's  are  requested  to  write  a  story  based  on  the  cue- 
words  selected.  The  following  is  the  set  most  successfully  used 
by  Meumann  :  house  took  fire — child  alone — clever  monkey — 
pa  rcn  ts  than  kfu  I — re  ward. 

No  time  limit  is  set  in  any  of  these  tests.  $'s  should  not  be 
hurried. 

Treatment  of  Data. — Airs.  Squire  contented  herself  with  re- 
cording four  degrees  of  performance  in  her  three-word  test :  (a ) 
complete  failure,  (b)  separate  sentence  given  for  each  word, 
(c)  three  words  in  one  sentence,  but  the  sentences  [of  the  rest 
of  the  story?]  unconnected,  and  (d)  complete  narrative.  The 
outcome  of  this  scoring  is  indicated  below. 

Winch  scored  performance  on  the  general  basis  of  number  of 
meaningful  'units'  in  the  story,  giving  no  allowance  for  any 
sentences  or  parts  of  sentences  which  did  not  arise  connectedly 
from  preceding  sentences,  but  yet  no  penalizing  for  lack  of 
esthetic  unity  (making  every  element  in  the  story  converge  to  a 
point) .  The  aim  is  to  rank  the  performance  with  regard  to  the 
"fertility  of  continuous  and  connected  imagination"  displayed 
in  it.7 

Kesults. —  (1)  Dependence  on  aye  is  shown  in  Mrs.  Squires' 
results  in  the  form  of  (a)  "a  development  from  the  crude  sen- 
tence strung  together  by  'ands'  to  a  closely  knit  sentence," 
while  (&)  "another  characteristic  change  is  the  transition  from 
the  fantastic  type  of  story  related  by  the  6,  7  and  8-year-old 
children  to  the  extremely  realistic,  matter-of-fact  style  employed 
by  the  9th,  10th  and  11th  year  groups,"  and  (c)  "another  plan 
of  invention,  more  flexible  in  style  is  evident  in  the  stories  of 
the  12th  and  13th  year  groups." 

As  applied  in  her  mental  age  series,  this  test  becomes  roughly 
diagnostic  as  follows :  the  normal  6-year-old  can  give  orally 
sentences  containing  the  three  words;  ability  to  get  all  three 
words  into  one  sentence,  though  with  a  disconnected  story, 
would  appear  typical  of  8  and  9-year-old  children  (though  given 
by  Binet  as  a  10-year  test)  ;  ability  to  construct  a  complete 

7See  his  discussion,  pp.  102-105,  for  further  details. 


ii.m     16:  LINGUISTIC   INVENTION  [637]    271 

narrative  as  a  realistic  type  is  BeeD  in  the  9th  and  succeeding 
years,  with  a  anal  level  of  flexibility  and  superiority  of  Btyle 
appearing  .it  12  and  L3  years. 

(2)  Correlations.     Winch    found   moderately   high   correla- 
tions, .55  to  .7").  between  substance  memory  and  the  invention 
of  stories,  and  that  practise  in  substance  memory,  unless  car-' 
ried  to  the  'fatigue-point'  (limit  of  training),  tends  to  augmenl 
proficiency  in  invent  ion. 

(3)  Reliability.  The  reliability  of  the  test,  as  might  be 
anticipated,  is  not  very  high,  about  .50,  so  that  more  than  one 
trial  is  demanded  for  significant  results. 

ili  Qualitative  differences.  Meumann  found  it  somewhat 
difficult  to  Bcore  the  work  of  school  children  in  such  a  way  as 
to  distinguish  fine  degrees  of  intellectual  ability,  bu1  he  consid- 
ers the  elaboration  of  the  story  from  the  cue-words  a  good  test 
for  revealing  larger  differences  in  general  mental  ability  and 
also  for  revealing  various  mental  types.  In  general,  he  finds 
eight   fairly  distinct  types  of  story. 

i  </ 1  Zero  performance;  connections  between  the  cue-words  lacking  or 
nonsensical. 

(6)  The  cue-words  arc  connected  in  a  number  of  separate  and  Inde- 
pendent sentences.  Here  the  grade  of  mental  ability  is  sufficient  to  join 
together  pairs  of  terms,  lint  not  to  make  the  larger  synthesis  of  all  the 
terms  into  ;i   whole. 

<<-i  Attempts  are  made  to  produce  a  whole,  but  the  connections  be- 
tween the  various  cue-words  are  net  rightly  arranged  ami  the  point  of 

the  whole  story   is  not    grasped. 

i '' i     The  connections   between   the  cue-words  are  rightly   arranged, 

but  the  point  of  whole  si  rh  s  of  words  is  missed  and  the  result  is  a  story 
of  a  totally  wrong  •turn.' 

Types  u-ii  may  i>e  regarded  as  all  indicative  of  lower  stages  of  In- 
tellectual ability:  the  following  four  types,  however,  may  he  regarded 
as  solutions  of  the  problem,  though  of  different  kinds. 

(e)  The  pure  imaginative  t\i\><'  is  illustrated  by  a  story  of  astonish- 
ing richness  of  detail,  with  decided  linguistic  fluency,  hut  with  the  real 
point  either  quite  lost  or  badly  distorted,  S's  of  this  type  evince,  then. 
Utile  Intelligence,  hut  a  rich  imagination  ;  their  endowment  is  perhaps  ex- 
clusively linguistic. 

(/■)  The  pure  intellectual  type  is  illustrated  by  a  story  in  which  the 
connections  of  the  cue-words  are  correct  and  the  point  Of  the  whole  is 
correctly  grasped,  bul  its  elaboration  into  a  story  is  accomplished  in  the 
seantiesl  manner  possible.  8  is  content  to  present  the  logical  and  fact- 
ually correct  connection  of  the  cue-words  in  the  shortest  possible  manner. 

(g)  The  Imaginative-emotional  type  is  illustrated  in  stories  that  show 
evident  presence  of  feeling,  to  give  due  expression  to  which  8  Indulges 
in  active  Imagination,  lie  introduces  invented  details  m  express  bis 
emot  lonal  read  ion. 

(//)     The  intellectual-imaginative  type  \<   Illustrated  by  stories  that 


272     [638]  IMAGINATION    AND    INVENTION 

show  clear  grasp  of  the  meaning  of  the  whole  supplemented  by  liuagina 
tive  and  pictorial  additions,  which  are,  however,  always  pertinent  and 
subdued  to  the  salient  points  in  the  development  of  the  story. 

For  examples  of  these  several  typos,  consult  Meumann  (pp.  138-9)  : 
a  single  one  of  them,  that  of  Type  f,  may  he  repeated  here : 
Story  of  Arthur  W.,  7th  school  year,  age  12  years  9  months  : 
"There  was  a  house  in  the  village:  it  took  fire.  The  parents  had  just 
gone  away.  The  child  was  all  alone  in  the  house.  The  people  also  had  a 
clever  monkey,  lie  saved  the  child  from  the  flames.  And  when  the 
parents  came  home  and  saw  that  the  monkey  had  saved  the  child,  they 
were  thankful  and  gave  him  a  reward." 

E.       DEVELOPMENT  OF  A  THEME 

Method. — Supply  H  with  writing  materials,  and  give  him  lu 
min.  (or  perhaps  longer  if  working  with  young  $'s)  to  write 
upon  some  theme  selected  from  the  following:  (1)  The  Death 
of  a  Dog,  (2)  The  Capture  of  a  Fortress,  (3)  The  Escape  of  <i 
Prisoner,  (4). A  ForcstFire,  (5)  The  Mission  of  Music,  (6)  The 
Influence  of  Newspapers,  (7)  The  Delays  of  Just  lee,  (8)  A  Trip 
in  a  Flying  Machine.* 

Treatment  of  Data. — Quantity  or  speed  of  work  may  be 
reckoned  with  approximate  accuracy  by  counting  the  number 
of  words  written  in  the  assigned  time;  quality  of  work,  which 
is  really  important,  especially  in  the  treatment  of  imaginative 
themes,  must  be  estimated  by  E  after  a  trial  has  shown  what 
may  be  deemed  poor,  and  what  good  work  for  $'s  of  the  age 
under  investigation.  Quality  may  be  recorded  in  the  manner 
already  described,  or  upon  the  basis  of  100,  as  in  grading  school 
compositions. 

Results. —  (1)  The  relative  number  of  ideas  elaborated  by 
different  $'s  is  indicated  with  fair  approximation  by  the  rela 
tive  number  of  words  written,  so  that  number  of  words  may 
stand  as  a  fair  index  of  fluency  of  ideation  and  general  lin- 
guistic readiness. 


8The  first  of  these  themes  was  used  by  Binet  in  his  comparative  study 
of  the  mental  processes  of  his  two  daughters ;  the  next  six  were  used 
for  a  similar  purpose  in  Miss  Sharp's  study  of  university  students — the 
first  three  of  them  being  designed  to  involve  imaginative,  the  second 
three  expository  treatment ;  the  last  theme  is  suggested  by  the  author 
as  more  suitable  for  younger  /Sf's.  To  secure  a  more  reliable  estimate 
of  <S"s  efficiency  it  is  desirable  that  more  than  one  theme  should  be  de- 
veloped. 

This  test  lends  itself  readily  to  group  treatment,  since  it  involves  a 
familiar  type  of  school  activity. 


i  i.si    46:  LINGUISTIC  INVENTION  [039]    273 

(2)  As  ;i  rule,  more  words  are  written  upon  imaginative  than 
upon  expository  themes,  sharp's  best  8  wrote  in  LO  min.,  on 
an  average,  259  words  upon  imaginative,  and  222  upon  exposi 
tory  themes;  her  poorest  8  wrote,  on  the  average,  124  and  94 
words,  respectively,  for  the  same  types  of  themes. 

i.'ii  Those  8's  thai  show  constructive  ability  in  the  ink-blot 
icst,  and  in  the  development  of  sentences,  also  exhibit  the  same 
superiority  here  in  the  development  of  themes. 

Motes.  These  tests  of  linguistic  invention  might,  withoul 
urcat  difficulty,  be  paralleled  in  other  fields  of  constructive 
effort.  A  test  of  musical  ability  (of  the  creative  sort)  might, 
for  example,  1>«'  devised  by  asking  8's  to  finish  a  partially  given 
musical  theme,  or  to  construd  a. simple  melody  from  a  given 
scries  of  notes.  Similarly,  certain  forms  of  artistic  invention 
might  be  tested  by  asking  8's  to  sketch  designs  for  wall-paper 
or  patterns  for  Venetian  iron-work. 

.Miss  Sharp's  test  of  the  choice  of  a  theme  was  conducted  b\ 
asking  8's  to  select,  from  the  following  i<»  themes,  those  ii\- 

upon   which   they   would   prefer  to  write,   if  asked  to  do  sit:  A. 

Imaginative  themes,  Hi  ///  '/  Snowstorm,  (2)  A  Polar  Land- 
scape, (3)  .1  Puritan  Sabbath,  if)  My  ()i>i><>sii<  Neighbor,  I  •">  I 
Man  Endowed  with  the  Power  of  Flight:  B.  Expository  themes, 
(6)  Civilization  >n>t  Regeneration,  (7i   Wisdom  in  Charity,  >v 

Friendship  <>f  Books,  i '•• )  Fiction  ax  a  Vehicle  <>f  Truth,  (10) 
The  Eloquence  of  ili<  Bar  <m<l  thai  of  the  Pulpit.  The  exposi- 
tory themes  were  generally  preferred,  bul  some  S's,  who,  as 
other  tests  showed,  had  little  capacity  to  handle  imaginative 
themes,  did  select   several    from   the   latter  division. 

REFERENCES 

(1)  A.  Binel  el  v.  Henri,  La  psychologie  Individuelle.  AnPs,  2: 
1895  i  1896),  411-405,  especially  III. 

(2)  A.  Binet,  L'Gtude  expbrimentale  de  i'lntelligence.  Paris,  1902. 
Pp.  ."-500.    Especially  eh.  x. 

(3)  C.  Hurt,  Experimental  tests  of  higher  mental  processes  and  their 
relation  to  general  intelligence.    JEPd,  t  :  mil.  93-112. 

(4)  R.  Masselon,  Psychologie  des  dements  precoces.     Paris,  1902. 

(5)  E.  Meumann,  Ueber  cine  neue  Methode  der  [ntelligenzpriifung 
und  fiber  den  Wert  der  Kombinntionsniethodeu.  ZPdPs,  13:  1912,  145 
163.  (Also  Vorlesungen  zur  Einfiihrungen  in  die  experimentelle  Pflda- 
gogik,  i-'d  ed.,  Vol.  2:  mi::.  445-452.) 


274    [640J  IMAGINATION    AND    INVENTION 

(6)  Stella  E.  Sharp,  Individual  psychology:  a  study  in  psychological 
method.    AmJPs,  10:  1899,  329-391. 

(7)  Carrie  R.  Squire.  Graded  mental  tests.  JEdPs,  3:  1912,  363-380, 
430-443,  493-500,  especially  439-111. 

(7a)  Jean  Weidensall,  The  mentality  of  the  criminal  woman.  To 
appear  in  EdPsMon. 

(8)  \Y.  II.  Winch,  Some  relations  between  substance  memory  and 
productive  imagination  in  school  children.    BrJPs,  4:  1911,  93-125. 

(8a)  Helen  T.  Woolley  and  Charlotte  R.  Fischer,  Mental  and  phys- 
ical measurements  of  working  children.  PsMon,  18:  1914,  No.  77.  Pp. 
247,  especially  185-212. 

(9)  S.  Wyatt,  The  quantitative  investigation  of  higher  mental  proc- 
esses.   BrJPs,  6 :  1913,  109-133. 


TEST  47 

Word-building. — The  word-building  test  was  suggested  by  the 
familiar  game  of  anagrams,  as  well  as  by  the  advertisements 
often  seen  in  magazines  in  which  a  prize  is  offered  to  the  person 
who  can  make  the  most  words  from  a  given  word  or  series  of 
letters.  This  test  is  easily  administered  and  evaluated;  it  is 
one  that  calls  for  ingenuity  and  active  attention  ;  it  might  fairly 
be  said  to  demand  that  ability  to  combine  isolated  fragments 
into  a  whole,  which  Ebbinghaus  has  declared  to  be  the  essence 
of  intelligence  and  for  the  measurement  of  which  he  devised 
his  well-known  'completion  method'  (Test  48)  ;  and  finally,  its 
execution-  is  conditioned  to  a  certain  extent  by  the  richness 
and  readiness  of  the  examinee's  word-vocabulary.  One  may 
expect,  therefore,  to  find  a  correlation  between  this  test  and  the 
vocabulary  test  (No.  50),  and  possibly  between  it  and  school 
standing  or  general  intelligence,  and  other  tests  of  creative 
literary  ability. 

In  addition  to  the  preliminary  reports  made  by  the  author, 
the  two  tests  proposed  by  him  have  been  tried  out  by  Pyle, 
Squire,  Wyatt  (with  some  modification)  and  most  recently  by 
Anderson,  in  an  extended  application  to  several  hundred  public 
school  children  at  Ithaca  carried  out  under  the  author's  direc- 
tion for  the  purpose  of  supplying  curves  of  percentile  distribu- 
tion for  performance  in  several  tests.  Heymans  and  Brugmans 
have  used  a  similar  test  (making  as  many  words  as  possible  in 
10  min.  from  a  given  10-letter  word)  in  their  study  of  the  inter- 
correlations  of  various  tests  of  intelligence. 


1  j  :   WORD-BUILDING 


[041 j   275 


Materials.— Two  specially  prepared  blanks,  the  first  of 
which  calls  for  combination  of  words  from  the  letters  a,  < .  o,  b. 
hi,  t,  the  second  from  the  letters  <■,  a}  i.  r,  /.  p. 

Method.— Provide  8  with  the  firsl  test  blank,  and  give  him 
the  following  instructions:  "Make  as  many  words  as  you  cao 
from  the  six  Idlers  given  on  this  blank.  Von  m;i\  use  any 
number  of  letters  from  one  to  six.  bul  no  letter  may  be  used 
twice  in  the  same  word,  and  no  other  letters  than  these  six 
are  to  be  used.  Von  will  have  five  minutes.**  Conclude  the  test 
by  use  of  the  second  blank  under  the  same  conditions.  For 
comparison  with  the  curves  of  distribution  given  here,  both 
tests  must  be  applied  and  in  the  order  jnst  mentioned. 

Treatment  of  Data. — Each  word  written  in  accordance  with 
the  rules  counts  one.  To  determine  just  what  shall  be  termed 
a  -word,'  the  data  secured  by  Anderson,  upon  which  the  curves 
that  follow  are  based,  was  scored  by  following  the  division 
made  upon  each  page  of  the  1910  edition  of  Webster's  New 
International  Dictionary,  i.  e.}  any  word  found  above  the  line 
was  admitted  ;  any  word  found  below  the  line  (and  hence  rare. 
obsolete,  dialectic,  etc.)  was  excluded.  No  discount  was  at- 
tempted for  possible  instances  in  which  legitimate  words  were 
hit  on  by  mere  accident.  As  a  guide  to  scoring  these  tests,  the 
lists  of  admitted  words  are  reproduced  here. 


acobmt-test 

il 

bam 

ea 

ma 

ip 

talp 

III. 

bat 

cat 

Mab 

oat 

tambo 

AI.e 

l>ate 

eta 

Mac 

om 

tame 

abet 

be 

mao 

tea 

am 

beam 

mat 

team 

ambo 

beat 

mate 

to 

at 

bema 

me 

toe 

ate 

bet 

meat 

Tom 

atom 

beta 

met 

tomb 

bo 

nicta 

tome 

boa 

moa 

l>o;it 

Moab 

bot 

moat 

bote 

mob 
mot 
mote 

276   [642 


IMAGINATION    AND    INVENTION 


a 

ea 

ai 

ear 

ail 

earl 

air 

ela 

a  I 

Eli 

ale 

epi 

alp 

era 

ape 

en  a 

April 

ar 

are 

Ariel 

aril 

eairlp-test 

I 

la 

pa 

Ra 

Ira 

lair 

pail 

Rae 

ire 

lap 

pair 

rail 

lea 

pal 

rale 

leap 

pale 

rap 

Lear 

paler 

rape 

lepra 

pali 

re 

lerp 

par 

Rea 

liar 

pare 

real 

lie 

parel 

reap 

Her 

pea 

rei 

lip 

peal 

rep 

lira 

pear 

rial 

pearl 

rip 

per 

ripe 

peril 

rile 

pi 

pia 

pie 

pier 

pile 

plea 

plier 

Results. —  (1)  Norms  are  given  in  Tables  130  and  131  for  the 
two  forms  of  the  test  separately  and  so  distributed  as  to  show 
the  average  performance  for  each  sex  at  each  age.  These  norms 
have  been  compiled  by  combining  the  data  obtained  by  Ander- 
son and  by  Pyle.  Percentile  distributions  for  the  scores  of  the 
two  tests  added  together  are  shown  in  Figs.  77  and  78.  These 
curves  have  been  derived  from  Anderson's  data  by  subjecting 
the  raw  data  to  the  process  of  numerical  smoothing  and  by 
further  smoothing  the  curves  in  the  process  of  drafting  them.1 


TABLE  130 
Averages  by  Age  and  Sex,  aeobmt-Test  (After  Anderson  and  Pyle) 


SEX 

AGE 

8 

9 

10 

n 

12 

13 

14 

15 

16 

17 

18 

ADULTS 

Boys— 

Oase< 
\ver 

W      86 
5.9     9.0 

103 
8.7 

112 
10.5 

124 
11.4 

134 
11.5 

109 
13.2 

85 
15.3 

5, 

19.3 

49 
17.0 

37 

16.9 

70 
18.4 

Girls— 

Case? 
Aver. 

48 
7.5 

101 
8.0 

128 

10.8 

115 
11.8 

141 
13.2 

99 
14.9 

118 
15.0 

96 

15.8 

94 
15.8 

70 
15.9 

53 

18.4 

93 
20.9 

aSee  Ch.  3,  p.  31,  for  these  methods. 


i  i.m    IT  :  WORD-BUILDING 


643]   L'TT 


Oo  accounl  of  the  relatively  small  Dumber  of  cases  available 
for  each  curve,  its  topography  must  be  regarded  as  somewhal 
provisional,  though  the  error  is  presumably  within  one  or  two 
points.  It  will  be  understood  that  the  minimal  and  maximal 
scores  <1<>  not  afford  permanenl  standards  of  comparison. 

TABLE   131 
Averages  by  .!</<   and  Sex,  aeirlp-Test  <  ifter  Anderson  and  Pyh  > 


SEX 


Boys Cases 


B 


39 


in 


ii 


12 


L8 


14        15 


16 


17 


18 


88     L02    112    130    111    111    87    03    52 


ADULTS 


30 


Awr.    5.5   7.3     8.3   10.6    L1.5    12.6    13.9,16.217.0,19.316.4     21.8 


Girls.._.  Cases  II    97    124 
Aver.    6.5  7.7   10.2 


111     138 
ll.:.   13.3 


91    121    98    94    71    54        15 
11.7    16.2,17.4  17.7  18.019.3     21.4 


(2)  Dependence  on  age.  Mrs.  Squire's  conclusion  thai  the 
correlation  "between  efficiency  and  maturity  is  not  so  complete 
as  in  many  of  the  other  tests"  would  seem  in  be  based  upon  the 
examination  of  too  few  cases  (10  of  each  age),  for  the  aver- 
ages of  Tables  130  and  L31,  with  the  single  exception  of  thai  for 
the  9-year-old  boys  in  the  aeo&mf-test,  show  a  progressive  rise 
with  age  from  8  to  17  years,  while  adults  are  uniformly  superior 
to  the  boys  and  girls  of  17.  The  same  thing  is  broughl  oul 
in  the  combined  results  se1  forth  in  the  curves:  thai  for  9-year 
boys  lies  for  the  most  pari  above  thai  for  LO-year  boys.  There 
is  also  a  drop  in  the  upper  percentiles  of  L5-year-old  girls  thai 
is  difficull  of  explanation  unless  there  has  beeri  some  accidental 
selection  of  poor  n's  in  this  group. 

(3)  Dependence  on  sex.    Comparison  of  the  two  tables  and 

of  the  two  Charts  makes  i<  easily  evident   that  girls,  at   least   up 

to  the  age  of  puberty,  are  consistently  superior  to  boys  and  by 
an  amount  approximately  equal  to  one  year's  advance.  It 
follows  that  this  sex  difference  must  always  be  had  in  mind  in 
i lie  use  of  the  norms  and  distributions  for  this  test. 

(4)  Dependence  on  race.  Pyle's  comparative  study  of  whites 
and  negroes  (3a)  shows  (dearly  the  inferiority  of  the  latter  in 
this  test.  In  terms  of  general  averages  for  all  ages  (in  which 
there  is.  unfortunatelv,  a  certain  element  of  unreliability  owing 


278    [644]  IMAGINATION    AND    INVENTION 

c/V//y     /O      20      30      4-0       50      GO       70       BO      90  rinx 


/3-/4-/S 


FIG.  77.     PERCENTILES  OF  WORD  BUILDING  FOE  BOYS.      ( Ajldei'SOU ) 


rEBT  47 :  word-building  [645]  279 


M,M         10  ZO  JO         4Q  JO         OO  70  80  9Q         Mw» 


FIG.  7S.      PERCENTILES  OF  WORD  BUILDING  FOB  GIRLS.       (AlldersoU.) 


280    [646]  IMAGINATION    AND    INVENTION 

to  the  unequal  numbers  of  the  two  races  tested  at  different 
ages),  the  male  whites  scored  10.8  words  in  the  aeobrnt-teat 
and  11.3  words  in  the  aeirlp-i&st;  the  male  negroes  scored  5.2 
and  6.0  words  for  these  tests,  respectively.  Similarly,  the 
female  whites  scored  12  and  13  words  against  5.9  and  5.1  for 
the  female  negroes  in  these  same  two  tests.  These  differences 
are,  of  course,  well  outside  of  their  probable  error. 

(5)  Individual  differences  are  decidedly  large  in  this  test. 
Inspection  of  the  charts,  for  example,  will  show  that  some  Sf's 
at  9  are  superior  to  some  *S"s  at  17  and  over.  Similarly,  in  the 
author's  first  trials  of  the  aeobmi :-test,  10  of  his  36  grammar- 
school  £?s  scored  15  words  or  over,  while  13  of  his  college  stu- 
dents scored  fewer  than  15  words.  This  wide-range  distribu- 
tion of  the  scores  is  an  obvious  point  in  favor  of  the  use  of  the 
method  in  diagnosis  of  individual  status. 

(6)  Frequency  of  different  words.  By  examining  the  papers 
in  detail,  and  tabulating  the  total  number  of  words  formed  and 
the  number  of  times  each  of  these  words  is  given,  one  may 
discern  something  of  the  principles  which  govern  the  operation 
of  the  test.    The  following  are  the  data  secured  by  the  author : 

Test  No.  1.       58  College  Students.        (43  Different  Words.) 

Over  50  times — bat,  mat,  bet. 

40-49  times — eat,  met,  Tom,  at,  boat. 

30-39  times— meat,  to,  tea,  beat,  team,  tab,  ate,  am,  moat,  mob, 

me,  beam,  toe. 
20-29  times— tame,  oat,  be,  mate. 
10-19  times — boa,  mote,  bate,  abet,  tomb,  tome. 

5-  9  times — Mab,  Abe,  Mae,  ma,  atom,  a. 

1-  4  times — bot,  mot,  o,  Moab,  beta,  bema. 

Test  No.  1 .    50  Gram  mar-Grade  Boys.     (38  Different  Words.  ) 

Over  40  times — mat,  bat. 

30-39  times— bet,  at,  met. 

20-29  times— to,  eat,  Tom,  beat,  tea,  meat,  be,  am,  boat. 

10-19  times — toe,  mob,  beam,  me,  ate,  team,  tab,  boa,  oat. 


TEST  47  :  WOBD-BUILDING  [  Gi7  J    281 

:»•  !>  times— ma,  bate,  a,  moat,  mot,  tame,  mate,  bot. 
l-  4  times— tam,  tomb,  Abe,  mote,  Moab,  Mae,  o. 
Not  given — those  not  given  by  college  students,  pins  abet,  atom, 
bema,  beta,  fcfab,  tome. 

Test  No.  2.      »'»'.)  College  Students.       (59  Different  Words.) 

< her  60  times— lip,  lap. 

."ill-.")!)  times— rip,  pap,  pear,  car.  real,  pie,  leap,  rail,  pale,  reap. 

40  4!>  times— pail,  pile,  ale,  pair.  are.  ape.  lie.  pea,  peal. 

30-39  times     pare,  earl,  pearl,  air,  par.  lair,  pipe,  liar. 

20  29  times-   ail,  Lear,  rape.  ire.  pal. 

10-111    limes      le;i.   pa.  rile.  pire.  era,  pier. 

5-  !>  times — per,  a,  alp,  Eli,  plea. 

1-  4  times— I,  paler,  peril,  lira.  rep.  rale,  pa,  April,  [ra,  la,  pi, 
Rea,  Kae. 

Inspection  of  these  lists  shows  "'I  lluil  three  letter  words 
are  in  every  instance  those  mosl  frequently  formed,  (6)  that 
two-letter  words  and  the  one-letter  words,  which  one  might 
expect  to  be  most  frequent  since  most  simple,  stand  relatively 
low.  e.  ;/..  ma,  be,  am,  pa,  me,  a,  o,  I r  (c)  thai  grammar-school 
hoys  give  all  the  words  given  by  college  students  save  a  few 
rather  unusual  terms  such  as  atom  and  tome,  {d)  that  usage 
and  ordinary  speaking  vocabulary  condition  the  formation  of 
words,  in  as  much  as  the  mosl  ordinary  words  have  the  greatest 
frequency,  e.  g.,  bat,  mat,  bet,  eat,  lip,  lap,  whereas  words  that 
are  less  frequently  used  in  every-day  speech,  although  their 
meaning  is  doubtless  perfectly  well  known,  do  not  suggest  them- 
selves so  readily  under  the  conditions  of  the  test.  c.  //..  tomb, 
Iodic,  era,  }>h<t .  paler,  (c)  that  the  words  not  given  by  any  one 
are.  with  one  or  two  exceptions,  e.  (/..  plier,  words  of  extremely 
rare  usage  or  unusual  form,  alternative  spellings,  etc. 

(7)  Reliability.  Wyatt  found  a  coefficient  of  reliability  of 
.88  between  the  rcsnlts  for  two  different  arrangements  of  the 


2It  appeared,  upon  Inquiry,  that  some  of  the  '-"lit'-:''  Btudents  bad 
omitted  words  like  /«'.  ma,  c  <>.  and  /  on  the  ground  that  they  were  'not 
real  wonts.'  or  'didn't  count,'  but,  oftener,  they  seem  to  have  been  passed 
over  because  the  attention  was  concentrated  upon  the  making  of  com- 
binations. 


282    [648]  IMAGINATION    AND    INVENTION 

letters  aeobmt.  A  sample  group  of  4G  cases  from  Anderson's 
data  gave  a  reliability  of  .74,  P.E.  .07,  when  the  aeobmt -test 
and  the  eairlp-test  were  compared.  The  word-building  test  is 
seen,  therefore,  to  possess  a  good  degree  of  reliability. 

(8)  Correlations.  Heymans  and  Brugmans  found  positive 
correlations  of  from  .12  to  .70  between  word-building  and  five 
other  tests  of  imagination  (puzzle  picture,  .35,  solving  riddles 
.24,  arrangement  of  syllables  .70,  jig-saw  puzzles  .12,  Binet's 
paper-cutting  test  .47).  YVyatt's  corrected  correlations  with 
word-building  gave  with  analogies  .93,  with  the  completion  test 
.97,  with  the  part-wholes  test  .99.  The  raw  correlations  for  his 
two  groups  of  fif's  were  for  analogies  .54  and  .05,  for  the  comple- 
tion test  .30  and  .70,  and  for  the  part-whole  test  .30  and  .77.  He 
also  found  raw  correlations  of  .39  and  .52  for  a  test  of  sentence- 
construction,  a  correlation  of  .47  with  interpretation  of  fables, 
but  no  correlation  with  the  letter-square  test. 

The  author  found  no  correlations  between  word-building  and 
class  standing  in  the  case  of  grammar-school  pupils  and  the 
insignificant  correlation  of  .13,  P.E.,  .08,  in  the  case  of  58  col- 
lege students.  Terman,  however,  found  his  stupid  boys  gener- 
ally inferior  to  his  bright  boys. 

(9)  Conditioning  factors.  Age,  sex  and  general  intelligence 
are  not  the  only  factors  that  affect  the  outcome  of  this  test. 
Thus  Terman  remarks:  "Much  depends,  of  course,  upon  the 
vocabulary  at  command,  and  this  in  turn  depends  largely  upon 
home  training  and  amount  of  habitual  reading  as  well  as  upon 
native  retentiveness.  A  second  factor  is  ability  to  spell,  and 
habits  of  word  analysis  generally.  Very  important,  also,  is  the 
use  of  a  rational  plan;  some  skipped  about  and  made  combina- 
tions at  random,  while  others  took  the  letters  one  by  one  and 
joined  them  in  as  many  different  ways  as  possible  with  the 
others.  Lastly,  the  rate  of  shifting  of  attention,  and  the  degree 
of  mental  inertia  as  opposed  to  spontaneity,  also  contribute  to 
the  result"     (5,  p.  342). 

REFERENCES 

(1)  E.  J.  Anderson,  Standardization  of  some  mental  tests.  (Study 
from  the  Cornell  University  Educational  Laboratory,  as  yet  unpub- 
lished.) 


TEST  48  :  BBBINGHAUS*  COMPLETION-METHOD    [t)4'Jj 

(2)  G.  Heymana  and  II.  Brugmans,  Intelllgenzprflfungen  mit  Stu- 
dierendcn.    ZAngPs,  7:  1913,  317-331. 

(3)  w.  II.  Pyle,  The  examination  of  school  children.  New  York, 
1913.    Pp.  To.    Especially  22-24. 

(3a)  W.  II.  Pyle,  The  mind  of  the  oegro  child.  School  and  Society, 
l:  if)ir>,  ::r,7-."»(;o. 

(4)  Carrie  U.  Squire,  Graded  mental  tests.    JEdPs,  3:  1912,  363 
430-443,  493-506,  especially  441-442. 

(5)  L.  M.  Terman,  Genius  and  Btupidity  :  a  study  of  some  of  the  Intel- 
lectual processes  of  seven  'bright'  and  seven  'stupid'  boys.  PdSe,  13: 
1906,  307-373. 

(6)  <;.  M.  Whipple,  Vocabulary  and  word-building  tests.  PsR,  15: 
1908,  94-105. 

(7)  S.  Wyatt,  The  quantitative  Investigation  of  higher  mental  proc 
esses,    lir./rs,  6:  1913,  109-133. 

TEST  48 

Ebhinghaus'  completion  method. —  In  July.  L905,  the  Bchool 
authorities  of  Breslao  requested  certain  persons,  among  them 
Professor  II.  Ebbinghans,  to  undertake  a  scientific  investiga- 
tion of  the  fatigue-effects  of  the  continuous  five-hour  session 
then  in  vogue  in  thai  city.  In  the  course  of  this  investigation 
Ebbinghans  devised  and  applied,  in  conjunction  -with  other 
tests,  what  he  termed  the  'ComMnationsmethode'  (since  re- 
ferred to  by  Elsenhans  as  the  'completion-method'  and  by  others 
as  the  mutilated  text  or  missing-words  test).1 

The  author  of  the  method  says  in  substance:  .Mental  ability 
demands  not  merely  retentive  capacity,  readiness  of  recall,  or 
facile  association  of  specific  pasl  experiences;  it  demands  all 
this  and  something  more,  something  inure  complex  and.  as  it 
were,  creative:  namely,  the  ability  to  combine,  into  a  coherent 
and  significant  whole,  mutually  independent  and  even  seem 
ingly  contradictory  impressions.  In  short,  intelligence  is  essen- 
tially a  combinative  activity.    To  measure  intelligence,  there- 


'Meyer  bas  pointed  out  the  Inaccuracy  of  the  translation  "combination- 
method,"  which  has  been  currenl  for  some  time.  The  German  Com- 
binatiormgaoi  is  do!  a  talenl  for  combination,  bu1  an  ability  to  "put  two 
and  two  together,"  or,  to  use  Meyer's  explanation,  "a  talent  for  drawing 
conclusions  from  premises  which  <1<>  not  very  readily  present  themselves 
to  a  man's  consciousness  as  items  of  a  unitary  logical  thought,  bul  which, 
as  soon  as  tin//  are  combined,  surest  the  conclusion  very  forcibly."  This 
is  quite  true,  bul  the  author  can  not  sec  that  Meyer  lias  improved  mat- 
ters by  advocating  the  translation  "conjectural  method."  To  conjecture 
is  to  surmise,  to  guess,  to  form  a  tentative  opinion,  i  liferent  ially.  Tech- 
nically, the  activity  in  the  Ebbinghaus  test  mighl  lie  labelled  'redintegra- 
tion,' tmt,  as  this  term  Is  somewhat  clumsy,  the  designation  'completion 
method'  seems  entirely  adequate. 


284    [650]  IMAGINATION    AND    INVENTION 

fore,  we  must  employ  a  test  that  demands  ability  to  combine 
fragments  or  isolated  sections  into  a  meaningful  whole.  Such 
a  test  may  be  afforded  by  mutilated  prose,  i.  e.,  by  eliding  let- 
ters, syllables,  words,  or  even  phrases,  from  a  prose  passage 
and  requiring  the  examinee  to  restore  the  passage,  if  nQt  to  its 
exact  original  form,  at  least  to  a  satisfactory  equivalent  of  it. 

On  account  of  the  enthusiastic  statements  of  Ebbinghaus, 
who  characterizes  this  method  as  "a  real  test  of  intelligence," 
and  as  "a  simple,  easily  applied  device  for  testing  those  in- 
tellectual activities  that  are  fundamentally  important  and  sig- 
nificant both  in  the  school  and  in  life,"  the  test  has  assumed 
some  prominence. 

The  classification  of  this  method  in  a  system  of  tests  is  not 
always  easy,  for  the  simple  reason  that  what  mental  processes 
it  demands  depends  almost  entirely  upon  the  number  and 
kind  of  elisions  that  are  made  in  the  text.  To  take  extreme 
cases,  if  the  elisions  are  numerous  and  sweeping,  it  may  be- 
come really  a  linguistic  puzzle  of  a  very  difficult  variety,  and  it 
then  belongs  rather  in  the  group  of  tests  of  active  or  creative 
imagination  of  the  literary  type;  if,  on  the  other  hand,  the 
elisions  are  but  few  and  simple,  it  may  degenerate  into  a  sim- 
ple test  of  controlled  association  of  any  desired  degree  of  ease. 
Again,  if  the  original  text  be  first  read  to  the  examinee,  as 
some,  e.  g.,  Elsenhans,  suggest,  the  test  becomes  in  the  main  a 
test  of  associative  recall,  i.  e.,  a  form  of  memory  test. 

Since  the  elision  of  a  single  letter  may,  in  some  circum- 
stances, very  considerably  increase  the  difficulty  of  the  test,  it 
follows  that,  without  extensive  preliminary  trials,  it  is  well- 
nigh  impossible  to  prepare  a  series  of  texts  of  equivalent  diffi- 
culty, or  to  insure  that  the  several  sections  within  a  given  text 
present  equivalent  difficulty. 

That  these  difficulties  in  the  preparation  of  the  text  are  real 
and  serious  is  attested  by  the  unanimity  with  which  they  are 
expressed  by  all  investigators.  They  have  led  some  experi- 
menters to  question  whether  the  method  did,  after  all,  get  at  the 
mental  activity  it  was  designed  to  call  forth,  but  the  trend  of 
opinion  has  been  on  the  whole  distinctly  and  even  euUmsi- 
asticallv  in  favor  of  the  test. 


TEST  4b  :  BBBlWGHAUS'  COMPLBTION-MKTHOD    [651]    28C 

The  following  is  a  sample  section  of  text  as  used  by  Ebblnghaua  and 
other  German  investigators:  the  dotted  lines  Indicate  the  position  and 
approximate  length  of  the  omissions. 

Belagerung  Kolbergs.     1807. 

"Da   der   Felnd   fortf an....neuen    Bchanze   am    Sandweg< 

angestr Eifer  zu so  batte  onser  aeuer  Kommandant 

gleicb ersteu   Nacht Hierselns  elnen   Aua dleselbe 

angeordnet,"  etc. 

Terman  elided,  in  tbe  main,  whole  words.  Instead  of  syllables,  on  the 
ground  that  the  word  is  a  mure  natural  unit  of  language  than  the 
syllable,  and  that  ability  to  supply  missing  syllables  will,  In  the  ease  of 
school  children,  depend  largely  on  the  extent  t<»  which  word-analysis  baa 

been    taught    in   tlie  schools :    tbis    varies   in   different   BChOO]    systems  and 

even  in  different  classes  of  the  same  system. 

Materials— Stop-watch,  or  for  group  work,  the  special  Bee 

onds  clock  is  recommended.  Four  printed  texts.  [If  all  four 
texts  are  to  be  used  for  the  test,  E  should  prepare  a  shorl  sam- 
ple piece  of  mutilated  text,  say  three  or  four  lines,  which  may 
be  typewritten,  or  placed  ou  the  blackboard  for  group  work, 
and  used  for  demonstration  and  preliminary  trial.  If  one  of 
the  texts  is  not  used,  tbis  may  serve  the  purpose.] 

Text  No.  1,  prepared  by  the  author.  1ms  been  used  by  him  in 
tests  upon  college  students  and  by  Mrs.  Squire  in  tests  upon 
school  children.  It  contains  100  elisions,  including  some  in 
which,  in  accordance  with  Ebb  high  a  us'  plan,  portions  of  words 
as  well  as  entire  words  are  elided. 

Text  No.  2,  taken  from  Terman  (18),  has  been  used  by  W'vatt 
in  tests  upon  English  school  children;  it  contains  93  elisions. 

Text  No.  3  is  designed  especially  for  use  after  a  preliminary 
reading  of  the  entire  completed  form.  It  is  taken  from  Ter 
man  and  contains  100  elisions. 

Text  No.  4,  taken  from  Terman  and  Childs  (19),  and  not 
here  reproduced,  is  substantially  the  same  passage  as  No.  J. 
but  the  elisions  are  made  upon  a  new  plan,  such  that  there  ate 
four  sections  representing  four  different  degrees  of  elision.  In 
the  first  section  33,  in  the  second  45,  in  the  third  54  and  in  the 
fourth  GG  per  cent,  of  the  original  material  is  elided.  This  text 
demands  a  special  system  of  scoring.  In  use  in  tbe  author's 
laboratory  it  has  been  found  that  the  second  and  third  blanks 
are  peculiarly  unfortunate:  they  are  too  difficult  and  tend  to 


286    [652J  IMAGINATION    AND    INVENTION 

produce  discouragement  and  confusion  at  the  outset.  Many 
adults  also  find  the  fourth  section  easier  than  the  third,  despite 
the  greater  amount  of  elision  in  it.  However,  the  text  has  been 
retained  as  presented  by  its  authors  on  account  of  the  norms 
published  for  it  by  them. 

The  reader  who  desires  to  try  yet  other  texts  will  find  eight 
of  them  in  Simpson  (16,  pp.  119-121). 

In  the  reproductions  here  given,  italics  indicate  the  elisions  in  the 
printed  text. 

Text  No.  1. 
Where  the  Dandelions  Went. 

When  Willy  was  two  years  old,  he  lived  in  a  red  iarm-ho«se  icith  a 
yard  in  front  of  it.  The  dandelions  were  very  thick  there;  so  that  the 
yard  looked  yellow  instead  of  green. 

One  bright  day  Willy's  mamma  put  on  Ms  straw  hat  and  sent  him  out 
into  the  yard  to  play.  She  knew  the  yard  had  a  high  fence;  and  he 
could  riot  open  the  gate;  so  he  was  safe.  When  it  teas  time  for  him  to 
have  a  nap  and  site  went  to  call  him,  she  noticed  that  a  great  many  of 
the  dandelions  were  gone.  She  wondered  where  they  were;  but,  as  Willy 
could  not  talk  much,  she  did  not  ask  him  about  them. 

A  short  time  after,  while  he  was  asleep  in  his  crib,  his  mamma  went 
nut  to  draw  some  water.  When  the  bucket  came  up  full  of  water,  the 
top  was  all  yellow  with  dandelions.  Looking  down  into  the  well,  she 
could  see  no  water  at  all,  only  dandelions. 

It  was  no  wonder,  then,  where  the  blossoms  had  gone.  Willy  had  been 
very  busy,  trying  to  fill  vp  the  well. 

Text  No.  2. 

The  Strength  of  the  Eagle. 

One  day  the  eagle  went  with  the  other  birds  to  see  which  could  fly  the 
highest.  They  agreed  that  he  who  could  fly  the  highest  should  be  called 
the  strongest  bird.  All  started  at  the  same  time  and  flew  away  among 
the  clouds.  One  by  one  they  grew  weary  and  returned,  but  the  eagle  flew 
upward  and  upward  until  he  was  a  mere  speck  in  the  heavens.  When  he 
came  back,  the  others  were  wailing  for  him;  and  when  ho  touched  the 
ground  a  linnet  flew  off  his  back  where  lie  had  been  hidden  and  said 
that  he  himself  was  the  strongest  bird.  "/  am  stronger  than  the  eagle," 
said  the  linnet,  "for  not  only  did  I  fly  as  high,  but  when  he  began  his 
downward  /Unlit,  I  left  my  hiding  place  and  flew  up  a  little  higher."  At 
this  boastful  speech  the  others  shook  their  heads  and  called  a  council  to 
decide  the  matter.  After  a  long  debate  they  decided  that  the  eagle  teas 
the  strongest  bird,  for  not  only  did  he  fly  so  high,  but  he  carried  the 
linnet  as  well. 

To  this  day  the  plumes  of  the  eagle  are  emblems  of  strength  and 
courage. 

Text  No.  3. 
Why  the  Mole  is  Blind. 

An  Indian  once  chased  a  squirrel  into  clondland.  Then  he  set  a  trap 
for  him,  laughing  to  think  how  he  would  catch  him.     The  squirrel  did 


TEST  48  :  BBBINGHAUS*  COMPLETION-METHOD    [653]    287 

not  come  back,  but  alas  I  the  sun  <"'  his  daily  roiuui.s  fell  right  //</o  Mc 

When  //;r  brigbl  sunlight  did  not  come,  the  Indian  began  to  be  ufl 
and  when  he  found  his  />"/»  bad  f/te  sun  fast  be  did  not  know  icAcri  to  < l « » . 

He  tried  to  p<  /  near  enougb  to  tooaew  tbe  cords,  but  //<<■  /<-'//  from  the 
sun  scorched  biui  and  be  gave  it  «/<. 

Then  ftc  coaxed  many  animals  to  try  if,  but  fftei/  all  found  Hie  *««  too 
hot.  At  fa«t  the  //";/<■  mm'*/.-  -i  will  dig  through  tin  ground  under  the 
//■«/)  and  bo  get  nt  tin  cords." 

This  //<  did  and  the  sun  leaped  up  into  //"■  fteaw  n«. 

Bui  it  in  nt  so  quickly  that  ffte  poor  wioto  com/./  not  pet  atcay,  and  the 
/('(//  of  //m  8mw  /<///  "in  his  eyes. 

since  then  the  wtoZea  bave  bad  /'/  live  in  dark  places,  and  unless  one 
/ooA'x  mtv  eto«<  /.i/  in'  cati  //',/  lind  tin  ir  i 

Method. — Provide  8  with  ;i  demonstration  or  practise  text 
(either  one  of  the  three  regular  lexis  not  to  he  used  subse- 
quently— excepl  Hint  Text  2  should  not  be  used  if  4  is  to 
follow— or  tbe  special  sample  prepared  by   E).     Explain  the 

nature  of  the  test,  in  accordance  with  tbe  direetions  printed  on 
tbe  test-blanks.  It  is  well,  in  addition,  to  suggest  that,  in  case 
a  certain  elision  oilers  special  difficulty,  it  may  be  temporarily 
passed  by,  since  tbe  correct  interpretation  of  tbe  context  fur- 
ther on  will  often  give  tbe  necessary  cue  tor  the  omitted  elision. 

When  it  is  clear  thai  S  understands  tbe  conditions,  proceed 
with  the  test  proper.  If  but  one  trial  is  in  lie  made,  use  Text  '2 
or  4  with  a  LO-min.  limit.  If  more  than  one,  follow  with  Text 
1,  using  tbe  work-limit  method. 

Record  the  time  and  make  notes  of  the  manner  in  which  ,S' 
undertakes  tbe  test.  Does  be  read  it  all  over  first?  Does  he 
work  systematically?  Attentively?  With  confidence  or  hesita- 
tion?   Does  be  grasp  the  general  thread  of  tbe  story? 

Variations  of  Method. —  (1)  To  conduct  the  test  with  the 
memory  feature,  employ  Text  No.  .'!,  which  is  specially  devised 
for  that  purpose.  After  the  preliminary  trial,  read  the  unmu- 
tilated  text  for  NO.  ::.  entire,  to  8.  Then  supply  him  with  the 
No.  3  test-blank  and  proceed  as  before.  The  text  may  be  read 
more  than  once,  or  any  desired  time-interval  may  be  introduced 
between  tbe  reading  and  I  lie  execution  of  the  completion.  Other 
variations  will  SUggesI  themselves,  e.  g.}  auditory,  visual,  or 
auditory-visual  reading,  etc. 


288    [654]  [PAGINATION    AND    INVENTION 

(2)  To  approximate  the  conditions  observed  by  BrOwn,  Wyatt 
and  others,  give  8  opportunity  (say  three  to  five  minutes)  to 
examine  the  text  before  filling  it  out.  This  variation  of  method 
obviously  changes  the  character  of  the  test  considerably:  it 
tends  to  greater  uniformity  in  the  mental  processes  of  the  >S"s, 
but  it  removes  the  differentiation  which  the  standard  method 
conserves  in  that  some  /S"s  are  quick  to  see  the  necessity  of 
looking  over  the  text  ahead  of  their  work  while  others  are  not. 

(3)  The  Ebbinghaus  test  lends  itself  rather  well  to  group 
tests.  With  Texts  1,  2  and  3  the  use  of  the  author's  seconds- 
clock2  is  recommended.  If,  however,  the  time-limit  method  is 
followed,  the  limit  must  be  so  chosen  that  the  fastest  8  in  the 
groups  under  comparison  can  but  just  complete  the  work. 
For  adults,  7  min.  may  be  employed  for  Texts  1  and  2,  a  shorter 
time  for  Text  3.  Text  4,  it  should  be  noted,  is  devised  to  be 
scored  by  the  time-limit  method  only.  For  it  Terman  and 
Childs  specify  15  min.  Unfortunately,  this  time  is  too  long  for 
some  high-school  students,  as  investigations  in  the  author's 
laboratory  have  shown;  in  fact,  even  when  the  time  is  shortened 
to  10  min.,  a  few  pupils  (about  2  per  cent.)  will  finish  before 
that  time  is  up. 

Treatment  of  Data. — Text  4,  as  already  mentioned,  is  used 
with  a  constant  time-limit  (15  min.,  according  to  its  origina- 
tors, but  preferably  10  min.,  according  to  the  author's  expe- 
rience) .  It  is  scored  by  assigning  for  each  correctly  filled 
blank  6  units  in  Section  I,  8  units  in  Section  II,  10  units  in 
Section  III  and  13  units  in  Section  IV.  The  total  score  is  then 
divided  by  10  and  amounts  to  100  (exactly,  100.2).  One-half 
the  above  credits  are  given  if  the  inserted  words  "make  a  well 
connected  story,"  but  are  "related  in  only  a  moderate  degree 
to  the  thought  that  should  have  been  given."  No  credit  is  given 
for  inserted  words  that  make  no  sense  in  their  setting  nor  for 
words  that  make  a  continued  story  which  is  ''purely  literary 
invention,  having  no  connection  with  the  thought  given  by  the 
printed  words."  Thought  is  "considered  rather  than  elegance 
in  diction."  3 


2See  Vol.  I,  p.  9. 

'For  samples,  see  Terman  and  ChUds,  pp.  201-202. 


ii.  si    18 :  EBBINGHAUS' COMPLETION-METHOD    [G.joJ    28'J 

For  Texts  1,  2  and  3  there  are  three  possible  methods  of  scor- 
ing. For  adults,  working  individually  with  these  texts,  the 
quality  of  the  work  is  usually  so  good  thai  speed  alone  may  he 
used  as  an  index  of  efficiency. 

Secondly,  speed  may  be  neglected  and  attention  given  only 
to  quality  (in  which  case  the  instructions  should  be  modified 
to  indicate  that  8  may  'take  hLs  time').  An  example  of  this 
method  may  be  seen  in  the  work  of  Burt,  who  graded  the  worth 
of  each  inserted  word  on  a  system  of  <>  points,  0  to  5. 

Thirdly,  speed  may  be  combined  with  quality,  and  in  one  of 
two  ways.  The  quality  may  be  determined  and  related  to  Bpeed 
by  means  of  formulas  like  those  developed  for  the  cancellation 
test  (No.  26).  Or,  again,  the  time  Hunt  method  may  be  fol- 
lowed and  the  work  scored  by  the  plan  proposed  by  Ebbinghaus 
himself  and  used  by  Krueger  and  Spearman,  Brown,  Wyatt 
and  others.  Here  quantity  and  quality  of  work  are  computed 
as  follows:  (1)  (Jive  a  credit  of  1.0  for  eaeh  elision  filled  in  in 
any  manner.  |  2  i  Give  a  debit  of  0.5  for  eaeh  elision  unfilled 
in  any  manner.  (3)  Give  a  debit  of  1.0  for  eaeh  elision  filled  in 
such  a  manner  as  not  to  make  sense,  or  for  each  word  intro- 
duced in  excess  of  the  number  called  for  by  the  lines  that  indi- 
cate elisions  (or,  if  desired,  also  for  each  word  that  is  quite 
obviously  too  short  or  to  long  for  the  space  assigned  for  comple 
tion,  even  though  l lie  passage  'makes  sense').4  For  quantity  of 
work  done,  add  (2)  and  (3)  and  subtract  the  sum  from  (1). 
For  quality  of  work  done,  compute  the  relation  in  per  cent,  of 
the  same  sum  to  (1). 

Typical  Results. — The  following  is  a  sample  of  the  work  of 
a  boy,  11  years  old.  one  of  Terman's  '•bright''  group,  who  'com- 
pleted' Text  2,  with  the  exception  of  three  elisions,  in  26  mitt 
utes.     He  was  quick,  steady,  and  looked  ahead. 

"One  day  .in  eagle  went  with  the  other  birds  \<>  sec  who  could  fly  the 
highest  .  .  .  (Next  three  sentences  correct)  .  .  .  When  became 
back  the  others  were  waiting  for  bim;  and  when  lie  touched  the  ground 
.i  linnet  flew  off  his  back  where  the  thief  had  bidden  and  said  that  lie 
himself  was  the  strongesl  bird,  "l  am  stronger  than  you  are."  said  the 
linnet,  "for  doI  alone  did  I  fly  as  high,  but  as  he  began  flying  downward, 
then  I  left  my  biding  place  ami  flew  up  a  little  higher,"  etc. 

'Cohn  and  Dieffenbacher  penalized  only  0.5  for  errors  in  the  length  of 
the  inserted  word. 


290   [050J 


IMAGINATION    AND    INVENTION 


The  following  is  a  sample  of  the  work  of  a  boy  of  the  same 
age,  one  of  Terman's  "stupid"  group,  who  worked  for  25  min- 
utes at  the  same  text.  Save  in  one  or  two  easy  sections,  his 
'completions'  make  no  sense  at  all.    He  worked  by  phrases  only. 

"One  with  the  eagle  and  with  the  small  birds  and  see  who  could  fly 
the  highest,  and  agreed  and  he  who  will  fly  the  highest  should  be  called 
the  strongest  they  All  started  in  the  same  place  and  whent  away  among 
the  clouds.  .  .  .  After  a  while  he  decided  that  the  king  of  the  little 
bird  and  not  only  and  not  he  was  so  high,  but  he  did  the  thing  as  well,"  etc. 

Results. —  (1)  Norms  and  dependence  on  age.  The  results 
gained  by  Terman  and  Childs  with  Text  4  are  shown  in  Table 
132,  in  which  the  last  column  is  presented  as  a  basis  for  the  use 
of  the  test  diagnostic-ally ;  i.  e.}  the  score  reached  by  66  per  cent, 
of  the  children  of  a  given  age  is  taken  as  the  limiting  standard 
of  efficiency  for  that  age.    Tables  133  and  134  show  the  results 


TABLE   132 

Completion  Text  No.  .'/.    15-Minute  Limit   (Terman  and  Childs) 


REACHED   BY 


9 

32 
39 
52 
5G 
57 
33 

18.4 
29.2 
32.2 
34.2 
45.9 
48.5 

8.5 
11.8 
11.1 
11.7 
15.2 

9.4 

14.9 

10 

20.4 

11 

25.2 

12 

25.6 

13 

36.6 

14 

42.8 

for  boys  and  for  girls,  respectively,  obtained  by  Mr.  Fraser,  of 
the  Cornell  Laboratory,  with  Text  4,  but  with  a  10-minute  time- 
limit.  In  these  two  tables  the  number  of  cases  for  every  group 
is  given  in  parenthesis  just  above  the  group  average,  and  the 
groups  are  sorted  to  differentiate  age  and  school  grade  as  well 
as  sex. 

It  will  be  seen  that  at  13  and  14  (when  the  sexes  are  com- 
bined), the  Ithaca  children  have  the  better  scores  despite  the 
fact  that  they  worked  but  10  min.  This  difference  is  partly  due 
to  the  inclusion  of  high-school  pupils  in  these  ages,  whereas  the 
table  of  Terman  and  Childs  is  limited  to  children  from  the 
4th  to  the  Sth  grades  at  Palo  Alto,  California. 


TEST  48  :  EBBINGHAUS'  COMPLBTION-MBTHOD    [657]    -'Jl 

Cohn  and  Dieffenbacher's  tests  show  progress  with  age,  even 
up  to  the  20th  year. 

(2)  Dependence  on  school  training.  Wiersma  called  atten- 
tion to  the  fact  thai  the  relation  between  performance  in  this 
test  and  age  is  far  less  evident  than  that  between  performance 

and  scholastic  status.  This  fact  is  illustrated  clearly  in  the 
tables  prepared  by  Fraser:  taking,  for  instance,  the  results 
for  girls,  averages  by  ages,  13-19,  run  70.!),  <;::._,  57.3,  61.8,  65.8, 
G3.2,  70.4,  and  show  no  definite  correspondence,  whereas  the 
averages  by  school  grades,  8th  to  fourth  year  in  the  high  school, 
run  38.9,  56.5,  07. 7,  04.5,  80.7.  Since  there  exists  a  distinct 
positive  correlation  between  standing  in  this  test  and  general 
intelligence,  and  since  the  higher  the  grade  of  pupils  of  a  given 
age,  the  more  intelligent,  on  the  whole,  they  must  be,  it  follows 

TABLE  133 
Completion  Text  No.  ).    10-Minute  Limit.    Results  for  Boys  (Fraser) 


13. 
14. 
15- 
16. 
17- 
18- 
19.. 
All 


H.  S.  I  H.  S.  II  H.  S.  Ill         H.  S.  IV 


(7) 

46.3 

(9) 
36.5 

(7) 
39.5 

(2) 
42.1 

(1) 
34.0 


(26) 
40.3 


(6) 
54.1 

(18) 
54.1 

(22) 
48.5 

(5) 
38.7 

(3) 
42.5 

(1) 
33.2 


(55) 
49.4 


(2) 
32.6 

(9) 
46.3 

(7) 
61.9 

(7) 
55.9 

(11) 
61.5 

(4) 
51.1 

(1) 
32.0 

(41) 
54.1 


(1) 
54.6 

(3) 
44.1 

(11) 
73.3 

(13) 
58.0 

(8) 
43.7 


(36) 
58.2 


(1) 
92.6 

(3) 
73.9 

(8) 
62.5 

(7) 
56.5 

(8) 
61.9 

(27) 
63.2 


All 


(15) 
46.9 

(37) 
48.2 

(40) 
50.0 

(28) 
60.6 

(36) 
58.1 

(20) 
49.1 

(9) 
58.6 

(185) 
52.9 


202    [G58J  IMAGINATION    AND    INVENTION 

TABLE  134 
Completion  Text  No.  4.    10-Minute  Limit.    Results  for  Girls  (Fraser) 


H.  S.  I 


H.  S.  II 


H.  S.  Ill 


H.  S.  IV 


All 


13.. 
14__ 
15- 
VL. 
17- 
18- 
19- 
All 


(4) 
66.3 

(5) 
37.3 

(8) 
46.9 

(2) 
34.4 


(19) 
38.9 


(4) 
75.3 

(26) 
62.4 

(28) 
50.4 

(6) 
45.0 

(1) 
49.0 

(3) 
54.3 

(1) 
79.5 

(69) 
56.5 


(7) 
83.2 

(1) 
71.0 

(11) 
74.1 

(6) 
72.7 

(19) 
66.9 

(13) 
61.8 

(2) 
89.9 

(10) 
57.3 

(17) 
65.7 

(5) 
86.6 

(2) 
30.0 

(12) 
63.9 

(8) 
75.1 

(1) 
82.0 

(2) 
46.4 

(2) 
84.2 

(50) 
67.7 

(51) 
64.5 

(17) 
80.7 

(8) 
70.9 

(39) 
63.2 

(53) 
57.3 

(42) 
61.8 

(33) 
65.8 

(25) 
63.2 

(6) 
70.4 

(206) 
61.1 


that  some  part  of  this  correspondence  between  school  status 
and  the  results  is  due  to  the  correlation  with  intelligence.  The 
effect  of  the  school  training  itself  undoubtedly  contributes  an- 
other portion  of  the  correspondence — just  how  much  cannot 
be  said. 

(3)  Dependence  on  sex.  Although  Wiersma  could  not  make 
out  sex  differences  with  certainty,  the  subsequent  work  of 
Burt  and  of  Fraser  leaves  little  doubt  that  girls  are  superior 
to  boys  in  this,  as  in  most  tests  with  verbal  material.  Burt 
found  girls  distinctly  better  than  boys  in  his  text  The  Two 
Matches  (means  84  and  70,  respectively)  and  slightly  better  in 
another  test  of  a  more  argumentative  character  (53.2  to  50.4). 
Inspection  of  Fraser's  tables  will  show  that,  with  the  excep- 
tion of  the  Sth-year  averages,  the  girls  excel  in  every  group. 


TEST  48  :  EBBINGHA1  S*  COMPLETION-METHOD    [659]    293 

whether  comparison  is  made  by  ages  or  by  Bchool  grades.  The 
superiority  of  boys  found  by  Burl  and  Moore  in  one  teal  is 
attributed  by  them  to  the  aature  of  the  text,  \\  hicb  was  such  as 
lo  appeal  more  strongly  to  (he  interests  and  knowledge  of  the 
boys.  It  is  dilliuill  to  reconcile,  however,  tin-  results  reported 
by  Cohn  and  Dieffenbacher,  who  found  girls  inferior  to  boys  a1 
all  grades  and  regardless  of  equivalence  in  ages.  These  sex 
differences  were  greater  in  the  upper  than  in  the  lower  classes 
and  Bufficienl  lo  bring  the  better  girls  on  a  level  with  the 
poorer  boys  of  their  age  and  grade.  It  is  possible  that  this 
striking  opposition  to  the  results  found  by  others  may  be  due 
lo  some  differences  in  the  organization  of  the  schools  at  Frei- 
burg. 

It  is  unfortunate  that  Terman  and  Childs  have  made  no 
distinction  between  the  sexes  in  reporting  their  averages  and 
establishing  their  age  standards. 

(4)  Individual  differences.  Distribution  of  the  data  obtained 
from  the  completion  method  reveals  large  individual  differences. 
This  is  demonstrated  by  the  large  size  of  the  P.E.  in  the  data 
of  Terman  and  Childs  and  even-more  definitely  by  the  percentile 
curves  of  distribution  for  each  sex  prepared  from  Fraser's 
combined  results  for  pupils  from  14  to  IT  years  of  age  (Fig.  T!»  i . 

(5)  Practise,  according  to  Wiersma,  may  effect  an  improve- 
ment in  efficiency  in  the  completion  test  that  may  be  easily 
discerned  after  the  lapse  of  10  days,  and  even  after  an  interval 
of  6  weeks.  As  a  consequence,  il  is  evident  that,  in  making  use 
of  this  test  for  comparative  work  at  different  periods,  steps 
must  be  taken  to  eliminate  or  compute  the  practise-effect. 

(6)  Dependence  on  fatigue.  In  Ebbinghaus'  Breslau  investi- 
gation no  fatigue  effects  could  be  made  out  as  the  result  of  the 
live-hour  session  in  the  tests  with  the  upper  classes,  or  at  least. 

if  fatigue  were  present,  it  was  masked  by  practise.  In  the  lower 
(lasses  (10-12  years)  there  appeared  to  be  a  decrease  in  the 
quantity  and  quality  of  work  toward  the  end  of  the  session. 

These  conclusions  have  been  criticized  by  several  experi- 
menters. Pdnel  and  Henri  contend  that  the  several  texts  were 
of  too  unequal  difficulty  and  that  the  method  of  scoring  was 
arbitrary  and   crude.     Lobsien   has  also  criticized   the  general 


294  [660] 


riiN       10        2 


IMAGINATION    AND    INVENTION 

O        30         40         50         60  10         30         90      V\nx 


I  v.V> 

// 

/ 

/  / 

90 

t   1 

/ 

166    < 

5lRLS 



/ 

141     f 

30Y5 

/ 

/          / 

eo 

/ 

/ 

/ 

/ 

/ 

70 

/ 

/ 

/ 

/ 

/ 

DC 

/ 

/ 

/ 

/ 

/ 

/ 

50 

s 

/ 

/ 

S 

/ 

y 

40 

y 

/ 

/ 

~bO 

/ 

/  / 

// 

// 

ZO 

// 

4-L 

JO 

If 

0 

FIG.  79.     PERCENTILES  FOR  COMPLETION  TEST  NO.  4.      AGES  14  TO  17  COMBINED 

( Fraser ) . 


TEST  48  I  EBBINGHAUS'  COMPLETION-METHOD     [CGI]    295 

plan  of  administration  of  the  tests  in  the  Breslan  investigation. 
1 1  is  admitted  thai  the  material  used  was  too  easy  for  the  upper 
classes,  and  thai   tins  circumstance  tended  to  obscure  the  in- 

fiuence  <»i'  fatrgue  and  other  factors. 


rded 
device 


In  the  opinion  of  Kraepelin,  the  Gbbinghaus  test  is  to  be  rega 
more  ;i^  ;i  device  for  exploration  than  a<  n  decisive  and  accurate  dt>. 
for  measuring  fatigue,  for,  in  the  flrsl  place,  no  systematic  study  has  yet 
been  made  of  the  relations  between  mental  fatigue  and  the  complex 
activities  concerned  in  iliis  test,  and  secondly,  the  evaluation  <>f  the 
errors  is  so  difficult  and  their  scoring  so  arbitrary  that  the  test  is  not 
well  designed  for  single  applications  (Stichprobe)  and  statistical 
treatment. 

Wiersma  compared  performance  before  and  after  a  10-days  vacation, 
but  lie  expresses  ins  belief  thai  the  marked  improvement  cited  above  as 
exhibited  by  the  pupils  at  the  second  test  was  largely  due  to  practice. 
It  is  unfortunate  that  proper  measures  have  been  aol  taken  to  eliminate 
the  practice  error  in  these,  and  in  other  applications  of  the  completion 
test. 

(7)  Dependence  on  intelligence.  It  has  already  been  inti- 
mated that  the  relation  demonstrated  between  performance  in 
the  completion  test  and  scholastic  standing  is  partially  condi- 
tioned by  a  direct  correlation  with  intelligence.  Such  a  rela- 
tionship was  found  by  Ebbinghaus,  most  (dearly  in  the  lower 
and  progressively  less  clearly  in  the  higher  grades,  by  section- 
ing the  Breslan  pupils  into  three  groups  best,  average,  poor- 
est— on  the  basis  of  their  class  standing:  these  three  sections 
scored  rj;.  is  and  43,  respectively,  in  quantity  of  work,  and 
IT.::.  20.8  and  26.3,  respectively  in  quality  of  work  (percentage 
of  errors).  Similar  results  were  reached  by  Colin  and  Dieffen- 
bacher.  Wiersma  found  a  positive1  correlation  between  capacity 
in  this  test  and  native  ability  (Begabung),  both  in  tests  at  a 
teachers'  seminary  (ages  L4.5  to  19.5)  and  at  a  continuation 
school  (ages  12  to  15). 

Since  then,  statistical  treatment  by  the  more  accurate  corre- 
lation methods  has  continued  to  reveal  positive  correlations  of 
good  magnitude  between  the  completion  test  and  intelligence. 
Brown,  for  example,  found  a  correlation  of  .43  with  one  group 
(66  boys,  aged  11-12  years)  and  of  .69  with  another  group  (39 
girls,  aged  11-12  years),  and  he  declares  that  the  Ebbinghaus 
test  "is  a  good  measure  of  intellectual  ability.  It  correlates 
with  'general  intelligence'  almost   as  closely  as  'scholastic  in- 


296     [662]  IMAGINATION'    AND    INVENTION 

telligence'  (school  marks)  does.-'  Burt  reports  correlations 
of  .48  and  .53,  Wyatt  of  .85,  P.E.  .04,  with  one  group  and  of 
.61,  P.E.  .07,  with  another  group.  Simpson,  who  compared  the 
capacities  of  two  contrasting  groups  of  adults  in  numerous 
tests,  found  that  the  Ebbinghaus  method  almost  completely 
separated  his  two  groups,  and  that  there  was  a  correlation  of 
.89  between  results  with  his  'good'  group  and  the  estimated 
intelligence  of  the  members  of  that  group  alone. 

Wyatt  applied  the  analogies  and  the  completion  tests  to  seven  children 
who  were  candidates  for  admission  to  the  Fielden  School,  Manchester. 
England,  and  was  able  not  only  to  advise  which  of  the  candidates  should 
be  admitted  and  which  not,  but  also  to  predict  successfully  the  approxi- 
mate position  that  these  pupils  would  take  in  their  class  at  the  end  of 
the  term. 

Ebbinghaus  believed  that  the  correlation  between  the  completion  tesl 
and  school  ability  might  become  obscured  (1)  because  the  test  puts 
a  premium  upon  speed  of  work,  whereas  the  school  grade  is  based  on 
work  that  permits  of  a  slower  pace;  (2)  because,  in  some  part,  standing 
in  the  test  might  depend  upon  purely  formal  linguistic  skill  or  verbal 
dexterity— a  form  of  ability  which  he  thought  had  but  a  limited  scope  in 
school  work;  and  (3)  because  the  text  selected  for  the  test  might  be 
too  easy. 

In  the  author's  opinion,  these  reservations  are  scarcely  in  order,  in  so 
far  as  Ebbinghaus  implies  that  school  grades  are  inferior  to  his  test  as  a 
measure  of  intellectual  ability  and  asserts  that  linguistic  readiness  plays 
no  part  in  the  determination  of  school  grades. 

The  author  is  inclined,  rather,  to  agree  with  Terman  when  he  says : 
"My  experience  with  the  test  causes  me  to  regard  it  favorably ;  but,  like 
all  others,  if  taken  alone,  it  can  give  only  a  partial  account  of  the 
subjects'  ability.  It  certainly  does  indicate  something  as  to  the  general 
command  of  language.  I  am  inclined  to  think  that  somewhat  me- 
chanical activities  like  memory  and  association,  as  distinguished  from 
svnthetic  or  combinative  processes,  play  a  relatively  more  important 
role  in  this  test  than  Ebbinghaus  assigns  to  them.  Indeed,  verbal 
memorv,  in  the  broad  sense,  would  seem  to  be  the  chief  factor  in 
success."  Incidentally,  ability  to  spell,  degree  of  familiarity  with  the 
tvpe  of  literature  from  which  the  selection  is  taken,  and  the  way  in 
which  ><?  happens  to  go  about  the  test  may  all  affect  his  rank.  Indeed,  it 
is  possible  that  a  very  original  S,  one  with  a  spark  of  literary  invention, 
might  fare  relatively  poorly. 

Terman  and  Childs  say:  "We  believe  that  it  [the  completion  test] 
brings  to  light  fundamental  differences  in  the  thought  processes." 

(8)  Delinquents.  Text  4  has  been  used  by  the  author,  to- 
gether with  numerous  other  tests,  in  examinations  of  the  men- 
tal status  of  certain  selected  'citizens'  of  the  George  Junior 
Republic,   carried   on   with   the  assistance  of  Mr.   Fraser,   at 


TEST  48:  EBBINGHAU8'  COMPLETION-METHOD    [663]    2'.»7 

Freeville,  N.  Y.  While  our  data  (Table  135)  are  too  few  to 
generalize  from,  they  reveal,  as  far  as  they  go,  distinct  reduc- 
tions from  the  normal  performances  for  8'b  of  the  ages  con- 
cerned, and  these  reductions,  it  is  of  interesl  to  note,  bring 
the  averages  in  fair  agreement  with  the  standards  correspond 
ing  to  the  mental  ages  at  which  these  fif's  had  been  rated  by 
the  other  tests.  These  results,  then,  tend  to  confirm  the  con- 
Fiction  that  the  completion  method  is  of  considerable  value 
in  diagnosis  »»f  mental  status. 


TABLE  135 

Completion  Text   ',.      t5-Minute  Limit.     Results  from  'Citizen*'  of  the 
George  Junior  Republic  (Whipple  <i»rf  Fraser) 


SEX 

CASES 

CHRON.  AGE 

MENTAL   AGE 

AVERAGE 

M.  V. 

Girls 

13 
5 

14-19 

15-18 

10.0-12.5 

9.G-11.2 

27.6 
35.7 

13.6 
15.4 

(9)  ReliahUity.  Coefficients  of  reliability  computed  by  dif 
ferent  investigators  for  varying  forms  of  this  test  have  as  a  rule 
been  quite  high;  thus,  Brown  finds  the  coefficient  mostly  over 
.70,  Simpson  .92  to  .90,  Burt  .OS,  Burt  and  Moore,  .58,  and 
Wyatt  .89. 

(10)  Correlations  with  other  tests.  Ileynians  and  Brugmans 
report  the  following  correlations  with  the  Ebbinghans  test: 
discrimination  of  abstract  terms  .54.  memory  for  ideas  .50, 
problem  solving  .5G,  detection  of  grammatical  errors  .72.  Wyatt 
found  correlations  as  follows:  with  analogies  .8."..  with  word- 
building  .7(1,  with  part-wholes  .75,  with  interpretation  of  fables 
.69,  with  anos-tvxl.  4:5,  with  memory  for  nonsense  syllables  .til. 
with  dissected  pictures  .41,  with  letter-squares  zero.  For  nu- 
merous correlations  discovered  by  Brown  with  six  different 
groups  of  »S"s,  consult  the  original  texts  (2b.  pp.  122-123,  or  2a. 
p.  310,  or  the  same  material  may  be  gathered  from  Simpson, 
pp.  107-8).  Simpson  found  correlations  of  .85  with  hard 
opposites,  .72  with  easy  opposites.  .82  with  memory  for  words, 
.71   with   memory  for  ideas.  .Or,  with  adding,  and  .54  with  the 


298    [664]  IMAGINATION    AND    INVENTION 

c-test.  Corrected  correlations  reported  by  Krueger  and  Spear- 
man are  as  follows:  completion  test  and  pitch  discrimination 
0.81,  completion  test  and  adding  0.93,  completion  test  and  the 
hypothetical  'central-factor'  0.97.  The  completion  test  was 
not  found  to  correlate  with  a  test  of  memory  span  (Ausicen- 
diglemen).  The  extremely  high  correlation  with  the  'central- 
factor'  is  of  special  interest,  since,  if  the  argument  be  admitted, 
it  demonstrates  a  very  close  dependence  of  performance  in  this 
test  upon  a  certain  hypothetical  psychophysical  capacity,  pre- 
sumably akin  to  plasticity  of  the  central  nervous  system,  which, 
in  t lie  opinion  of  these  authors,  is,  for  each  individual,  a  funda- 
mental conditioning  factor  in  the  performance  of  various  forms 
of  mental  activity. 

Notes. — At  the  risk  of  repetition,  it  may  be  pointed  out  again 
that  the  outcome  of  the  completion  test  hinges  largely  upon  the 
degree  of  difficulty  of  the  text  employed:  too  difficult  or  too 
easy  texts  are  alike  undesirable,  for  the  former  convert  the  test 
into  a  blind  puzzle,  while  the  latter  fail  to  bring  out  char 
acteristic  individual  differences  of  ability. 

To  use  the  test  on  an  extensive  scale,  therefore,  we  need  to 
have  at  hand  a  number  of  texts  that  have  been  standardized  by 
comprehensive  trials  with  groups  of  $'s  of  both  sexes,  various 
ages,  and  various  degrees  of  capacity  and  training.  In  other 
words,  we  need  a  series  of  norms  of  performance,  or  'coefficients 
of  difficulty,'  as  it  were,  for  an  adequate  number  of  prescribed 
texts.  Tables  133  and  134  represent  a  contribution  in  this  direc- 
tion from  the  Cornell  Laboratory.  Any  investigator  can  im- 
prove them  by  adding  to  them  his  own  data. 

The  difficulty  of  making  comparisons  between  the  results  of 
different  texts  applied  at  different  times  may  be  further  reduced 
by  always  permitting  each  S  to  finish  each  text,  and  by  dis- 
tributing the  texts  to  be  compared  in  such  a  manner  as  to 
eliminate  by  subsequent  computation  whatever  error  arises 
from  this  difference  of  material. 

The  Lipmann-Wertheimer  modification  of  the  completion 
method  is  essentially  as  follows:  a  test-story  is  read  to  S  to 
supply  him  with  certain  information  which  he  is  supposed 
thereafter  to  conceal.    He  is  subsequently  given  for  completion 


TE8T  48  :  EBBINGHAUS*  COMPLETION  METHOD    [665]    LMJ9 

a  mutilated  text,  the  elisions  of  which  are  bo  arranged  as  to 
trap  him  into  introducing  facts  from  the  tesl  Btorj  which  he  is 
trying  to  conceal. 

In  an  endeavor  to  retain  the  essential  psychological  features 
of  the  Ebbinghaus  test  and  at  the  same  time  avoid  the  disturb- 
ance due  l<>  dependence  upon  linguistic  aptitude,  Healy  has 
devised  a  pictorial  completion  test.  This  is  carried  on  with  the 
aid  of  a  brightly  colored  picture  10X14  inches,  which  represents 
an  outdoor  stem'  with  ten  discrete,  simple  activities  going  on. 
Ten  one-inch  squares  are  so  cu1  ou1  from  this  picture  as  to 
remove  10  differenl  objects,  each  of  which  is  essential  i<> 
complete  one  of  the  activities.  8  is  given  the  incomplete  pic- 
ture, the  10  cut-out  portions,  and  35  other  one-inch  squares  of 
which  :>()  hear  other  objects  while  ."">  are.  blank.  His  task  is  i<t 
insert  the  10  squares  that  he  judges  essential  to  complete  the 
picture.  Data  thus  far  published  indicate  that  the  test  is  diffl 
cult  below  the  ajje  of  9,  that  performance  may  be  as  good  a1 
10  as  at  13,  and  that  some  adults  make  poorer  scores  than  chil- 
dren (due  to  their  more  critical  attitude  toward  the  drawing). 
A  time  longer  than  5  min.  with  more  than  one  'illogical'  or  more 
than  two  'total'  errors  is  suspicious  of  defective  mental  ability 
in  8'B  above  the  age  of  10.  This  iest  would  appear  to  poss»  9S 
many  possibilities  of  development. 

REFERENCES 

(1)  A.  Binet  e1  v.  Henri,  La  fatigue  Intellectuelle.  Paris,  189S. 
especially  Ch.  7. 

(2)  \V.  Brown,  (a)  Some  experimental  results  in  the  correlation  of 
mental  abilities.  BrJPs,  :: :  1910,  296-322.  (B)  Same  material,  with 
slight  modifications,  appears  as  Ch.  :;  in  The  essentials  of  mental 
measurement.    Cambridge,  Eng.,  1911. 

(3)  <'.  Burt,  Experimental  tests  of  higher  menial  processes.  JEPd, 
1  :  tun.  93-112. 

(4)  <'.  Burt  and  R.  c.  Moore,  The  menial  differences  between  the 
sexes.    .//.'/*./.  1:  1912,273-284,355-388. 

i .",  |  ,i.  Cdhn  mill  J.  Dleffenbacher,  Untersuchungen  liber  Geschlechts- 
AJters-und  Begabungs-Unterscbeide  bel  Schtilern.  Bethefte  zur  ZAngPs, 
2:  1011.     1'p.  21  I.  especially  30-36. 

(t;i  II.  Ebbinghaus,  Ueber  cine  neue  Methode  zur  Prtifung  geistlger 
Fahigkelten  und  Ihre  Anwendung  bei  Schulkindern.  //'.v.  13:  1897,401- 
459. 

(7)     T.  Elsenhans,  Nachtrag  zu  l"i>tnn'_rhaus'  'Koinbinatlonsmethod 
ZPs,  1.".;  April,  ts-.iT.   160  3 


300    [G66]  IMAGINATION    AND    INVENTION 

(8)  D.  K.  Eraser,  Unpublished  investigation  in  the  Cornell  Educa- 
tional Laboratory  on  the  standardization  of  mental  tests  for  the  period 
of  adolescence.  M   „  „  _„ 

(9)  W.  Healy,  A  pictorial  completion  test.    PsR,  21 :  1914,  189-203. 

(10)  G.  Heymans  und  H.  Brugmans,  Intelligenzpriifungen  bei  Stu- 
dierenden.    ZAngPs,  7 :  1913,  317-331. 

(11)  E.  Kraepelin,  Ueber  Ermiiduugsmessungen.  ArGsPs,  1:  190o, 
9-30,  especially  17. 

(12)  F.  Krueger  und  C.  Spearman,  Die  Korrelation  zwischen  versehie- 
denen  geistigen  Leistungsfiihigkeiten.     ZPs,  -44:  1907,  50-114. 

(13)  O.  Lipmann  und  M.  Wertheimer,  Tatbestandsdiagnostisehe  Koin- 
binations-versucbe.    ZAngPs,  1 :  1907,  119-128. 

(14)  M.  Lobsien,  Ueber  die  psychologisch-padagogischen  Methoden 
zur  Erforschung  der  geistigen  Ermiidung.    ZPdPs,  2 :  1900,  273-286,  352- 

(15)     M.  Meyer,  An  English  equivalent  of  "Combinationsmethode." 
JPh,  9 :  1909,  688. 

(16)  B.  R.  Simpson,  Correlations  of  mental  abilities.  Columbia 
ConEd,  No.  53,  New  York,  1912.    Pp.  122. 

(17)  Carrie  K.  Squire,  Graded  mental  tests.  JEdPs,  3:  1912,  363-380. 
430-443,  493-506,  especially  442-443. 

(18)  L.  Terman,  Genius  and  stupidity.  PdSe,  13:  1900,  307-373,  espe- 
cially 342-7. 

(19)  L.  M.  Terman  and  II.  G.  Childs.  A  tentative  revision  and  exten- 
sion of  the  Binet-Simon  measuring  scale  of  intelligence.  JEdPs,  3 :  1912. 
61-74,  133-143,  198-208,  277-289,  especially  198-202. 

(20)  E.  Wiersma,  Die  Ebbingliaus'sche  Combinationsmethode.  ZPs, 
30:  1902,  196-222. 

(21)  S.  Wyatt,  Tbe  quantitative  investigation  of  higher  ineutal 
processes.    BrJPs,  6 :  1913,  109-133. 

TEST  49 

Interpretation  of  fables.— In  1903  Swift  suggested  that  men- 
tal ability  might  be  measured  by  determining  tbe  capacity  to 
interpret  the  typical  situation  given  in  a  typical  fable.  The 
three  test-fables  employed  by  Swift  were  later  (1906)  used  by 
Terman  in  his  comparative  study  of  bright  and  stupid  boys. 
Still  later  (1912)  Terman  and  Childs  published  a  set  of  eight 
fables  selected  by  trial  from  a  series  of  20,  with  the  idea  that 
responses  to  this  test  would  assist  in  mental  diagnosis  in  con- 
junction with  the  Binet-Simon  and  other  tests.  These  authors 
believe  that  this  'generalization  test/  as  they  term  it,  "will 
prove  a  usable  addition  to  the  scale.  It  presents  for  interpre- 
tation situations  which  are  closely  paralleled  in  human  social 
relations.  It  tests  the  power  to  unravel  the  motives  underlying 
acts  and  attitudes,  to  look  behind  the  deed  for  the  idea  that 
prompted  it.    It  gives  a  clue  to  the  status  of  social  conscious- 


TEST  4!J  :   INTERPRETATION    OF    FABLES  [667]    3<>1 

nfs*.  Thi»,  if  correct,  is  tremendously  important  for  the  diag- 
nosis of  the  upper  range  of  mental  defectiveness."  .  .  .  "It 
does  not  need  to  be  unduly  complicated  by  language  difficulties, 
as  is  always  the  ease  to  greater  or  less  degree  in  tests  of  ability 

to  interpret   poet  Py."  ' 

Materials.  Printed  sheets,  containing  the  8  tallies  selected 
l>\  Terman  and  ( 'hilds. 

METHon.-  Instruct  8  substantially  as  follows:  "]  am  going 
to  read  to  you  some  tallies.  A  fable  is  a  little  story  that  is 
meant  to  teach  a  lesson  (convey  a  moral  I.  After  I  have  read 
each  fahle,  I  want  you  to  tell  what  is  the  lesson  thai  you  think 
it    teaches    (the   moral    that    it    is   intended   to  convey  i."      Read 

each  fahle  twice  through  before  asking  for  its  point.  For  ordi- 
nary testing  use  Fables  I,  III,  VII  and  YIIT.  These  four  have 
been  specially  selected  by  Terman  and  Childs  from  the  eight 
supplied,  as  proving  in  actual  test  to  answer  best  the  expected 
requirements  of  due  progress  in  scores  with  advance  in  age.2 

It  is  best  to  conduct  the  test  individually  and  to  record  ver- 
batim the  replies  given  oralh  by  8;  it  is  possible  then  to  follow 
up  N's  response  by  a  few  discrete  questions  if  necessary  to  he 
positive  of  his  interpretation.  If  group  tests  are  made,  supply 
each  (8  with  a  blank  sheet  containing  eight  numbered  spaces  in 
which  the  replies  may  he  written.  The  norms  of  Terman  and 
Childs  that  follow  are  based  upon  such  group  tests  with  writ- 
ten replies  for  Fables  I,  III.  VII  and  VIII. 

Variations  of  Method. —  If  time  permits,  supplementary  or. 
control  tests  may  he  made  by  the  use  of  the  four  remaining 
fahles. 

Treatment  of  Data. — We  quote  as  follows  from  Terman  and 
Childs:  '-The  difficulty  of  finding  a  method  of  scoring  which 
does  not  give  too  large  play  to  the  personal  equation  is  a  serious 
criticism  of  the  fahles  test.  After  experimenting  with  a 
number  of  methods  the  following  system  was  adopted  as  the  one 
best  suited  to  bring  out  objective  differences  and  to  call  atten- 


dee, for  example,  the  tost  used  by  Tensor,  p.  S. 

cS(>o  Terman  mid  Childs,  p.  138,  Cor  the  criteria  upon  which  these  four 
faltlos  wore  finally  chosen. 


:?02    [668]  IMAGINATION    AND    INVENTION 

tion  to  certain  types  of  answers  significant  for  clinical  pur- 
poses : 

"(a)  A  completely  generalized  and  entirely  relevant  reply, 
5  units. 

"(6)  A  generalization,  quite  plausible,  but  slightly  differing 
from  the  correct  one,  or  else  a  correct  statement  mostly  gen- 
eralized but  not  perfectly  free  from  the  concrete,  4  units. 

"(c)   Correct  idea  slated  in  purely  concrete  terms,  :>  units. 

"(d)   An  irrelevant  generalization,  2  units. 

"(e)  A  reply  in  concrete  terms  with  just  a  trace  of  relevancy. 
1  unit. 

"(f)  No  response,  or  an  entirely  irrelevant  concrete  state 
ment,  0." 

"Elegance,  grammatical  correctness,  spelling,  etc..  should  have  no 
weight  in  the  scoring.  On  the  other  hand,  it  is  necessary  to  be  discrim- 
inating as  to  essential  thought  in  the  response.  The  tendency  of  the  iuex 
perienced  scorer  is  to  give  too  much  credit.  "In  practise  there  is  a  tend- 
ency to  make  sparing  use  of  Scores  1  and  4,  reserving  1  for  a  few  replies 
that  are  not  quite  bad  enough  for  0,  and  4  for  a  few  replies,  which, 
though  pertinent  and  generalized,  are  not  quite  what  is  wanted.'1 

The  following  samples  of  scoring  for  replies  to  the  four  standard  fables 
will  serve  as  useful  illustrations: 

Fable  I.    The  Maid  and  the  Egos. 

Score  0.     "She  wanted  to  be  dressed  nice  and  be  praised." 

Score  2.  "Not  to  carry  things  on  the  head."  "Not  to  be  selfish."  "Not 
to  boast." 

Score  3.  "If  the  maid  had  not  planned  so  far  ahead  she  would  not 
have  dropped  her  milk."  "Don't  make  schemes  for  the  future  while  you 
are  carrying  milk." 

Score  5.  "Don't  count  your  chickens  before  they  are  hatched."  "Not 
to  build  air-castles."    "Don't  plan  too  far  ahead." 

Fable  III.     Hercules  and  the  'Wagoner. 

Score  0.     "Hercules  was  not  kind."     "Hercules  was  selfish." 

Score  2.  "Teaches  politeness."  "Teaches  not  to  be  mean."  "To  do  as 
you  are  told." 

Score  3.  "The  lazy  man  should  get  out  and  try  to  push  the  wagon  out 
himself."  "When  you  get  stuck  in  the  mud,  don't  call  for  help,  but  try 
to  get  out  yourself." 

Score  5.  "God  helps  them  v\ho  help  themselves."  "Teaches  us  to  help 
ourselves  before  we  ask  others  to  help  us."    "Don't  depend  upon  others." 


3For  farther  discussion  ami  samples  of  scoring,  see  Terman  and  Childs, 
pp.  135-130. 


TE8T  49  :  INTERPRETATION  01    FABLES  [669]    303 

Fable  VII.     The  Fob  and  the  Grow. 

Score  0.    "The  fox  wanted  the  piece  of  meat"    "The  crow  ought  not 

(d  have  tried  to  siiii:  till  she  bad  Bwallowed  it.'" 

Score  2.    "Nol  t"  be  stingy."    "Not  to  steal. rbink  before  you  act" 

Score  :;.    "The  crow  was  flattered  by  tiiis  Bpeech. rhe  crow  wi 

proud  of  ber  voice."    "If  the  crow  bad  not  been  bo  flattered,  Bhe  would 

not  have  lost  her  meat." 

Score  ."..    "Do  not  let  people  flatter  you."    "Don't  listen  to  praise." 
I'aiilc  VIII.    The  Farmer  and  tin   stark. 

Score  0.     "The  fanner  ought  to  have  let    the  stork  go. Che  farmer 

was  a  bad-tempered  man." 

Score  2.  "To  he  merciful."  "Do  not  kill  animals."  "Don'1  blame  the 
other  fellow."  "Never  go  into  traps."  "Not  to  tell  lies."  "Take  what 
yon  get  without  squealing." 

Score  3.  "The  stork  should  not  hi'  caughl  with  had  people  like  crane-." 
"The  stork  was  caught  in  had  company  and  had  to  he  treated  the  same." 

Score  f>.  "Keep  <>ut  of  bad  company."  "You  are  judged  by  the  com- 
pany you  keep." 

Results. —  (1)  Norms.  The  results  obtained  by  Fables  I,  III. 
VII  and  VI II  applied  to  about  350  pupils  from  the  4th  to  the 
8ih  grades,  inclusive,  in  14  rooms  of  the  Palo  Alto  and  .May 
field,  Cal.,  schools  provide  representative  data  for  children  up 
to  13  years  of  age.  Table  130  shows  the  pen-enlace  of  children 
of  a  given  age  that  secured  (nub  of  the  scores  from  0  to  5  for 
each  of  the  four  fables.  Experimenters  can  add  their  own  re- 
sults to  this  distribution  and  thus  increase  the  reliability  of 
the  distributions.  The  data  in  Table  137  are  secured  by  adding 
together  the  scores  of  the  four  fables  i  maximal  score  =  20)  ami 
multiplying  by  5  to  bring  to  a  percentage  basis.  The  last  col 
umn  of  this  table  may  be  taken  as  a  diagnostic  basis,  as  il 
indicates  the  score  that  is  reached  by  two  thirds  of  the  pupils 
of  a  given  age. 

i  "J  i  Dependence  on  age.  Terman  believes  that  "what  is  tested 
by  the  interpretation  of  fables  is,  in  pari  al  least,  ilia*  general 
change  of  mental  horizon  that  comes  with  increased  experience 
and  dawning  maturity."  The  data  thus  far  available  indicate 
a  fairly  steady  increase  of  proficiency  with  age,  save  that  per- 
formance at  12  does  not  differ  greatly  from  that  at  11  years. 
With  these  four  fables  tit  least  there  is  evidently  not  much 
chance  of  obtaining  distributions  for  ages  less  than  9;  indeed, 
in  the  opinion  of  Terman  and  Childs  it   would  be  difficult  to 


304   [070 


IMAGINATION    AND    INVENTION 
TABLE  186 


Distribution  by  Percentages  in  Interpretation  of  Fables  (Tennan 
and  Childs) 


SCORES 

TOTAL 

PERCENTAGE  OF 

FABLE 

AGE 

CASES 

INCORRECT 

0 

l 

2 

3 

4 

5 

4  +  5 

GENERALIZATIONS 

I.       9 

41 

14 

31 

24 

4 

4 

19 

23 

51 

10 

53 

13 

22 

20 

4 

9 

30 

39 

34 

The  Maid 

11 

61 

8 

6 

31 

10  16 

28 

44 

41 

and 

12 

80 

7 

10 

22 

5 

16 

39 

55 

28 

the  Eggs. 

13 

73 

5 

4 

18 

8 

15 

47 

62 

22 

14 

43 

5 

9 

20 

5 

16 

38 

54 

27 

III.      9 

41 

14 

7 

19 

29 

12 

16 

28 

40 

10 

53 

9 

9 

13 

19 

17 

32 

49 

25 

Hercules     11 

61 

5 

6 

15 

13 !  20 

41 

61 

22 

and  the     12 

80 

3 

12 

12 

11 

21 

39 

60 

17 

Wagoner.    13 

73 

0 

5 

16 

12 

18 

47 

65 

18 

14 

43 

5 

0 

9 

2 

36 

45 

81 

10 

VII.      9 

41 

19 

27 

34 

14 

2 

2 

4 

90 

10 

53 

17 

26 

35 

2 

5 

13 

18 

66 

The  Fox 

11 

61 

8 

15 

44 

8 

8 

16 

24 

65 

and 

12 

80 

11 

17 

32 

6 

15 

17 

32 

50 

The  Crow. 

13 

73 

11 

16 

27 

3 

8 

32 

40 

40 

14 

43 

14 

7 

34 

5 

14 

25 

39 

46 

VIII.      9 

41 

36 

19 

31 

5 

2 

5 

7 

81 

10 

53 

21 

24 

24 

2 

4 

24 

28 

46 

The  Farmer 

11 

61 

16 

11 

21 

6 

11 

33 

44 

32 

and 

12 

80 

15 

15 

22 

5 

7 

33 

40 

35 

the  Stork. 

13 

73 

8 

8 

14 

8 

14 

46 

60 

19 

14 

43 

7 

5 

18 

5 

11 

52 

63 

22 

The  percentage  of  incorrect  generalizations  is  obtained  by  dividing  the 
number  of  Scores  2  by  the  combined  number  of  Scores  2,  4  and  5  (see 
explanation  of  scoring  given  above). 

select  any  fables  that  would  be  serviceable  for  younger  children. 
On  the  other  hand,  the  addition  of  a  few  more  difficult  fables 
"would  make  the  test  especially  valuable  at  the  upper  end  of 
the  scale  and  help  a  great  deal  in  the  difficult  task  of  extending 
the  scale  beyond  13  years." 

(3)  Dependence  on  intelligence.    Swift  reports  that  the  table- 
test  showed  no  superiority  for  the  'bright'  children;  that,  on 


/ 


TBST  49  :  INTERPRETATION  01    FABLES  [671]    306 

TABLE  137 

Norms  for  Interpretation  of  Four  Fables  {Terman  and  Ohttds) 


AGE 

CASES 

MEDIAN 

REACHED  BY 

66  ° ,'o 

g 

41 

35-40 

45 

50-55 

55 

70 

70-75 

25-3H 

10 

53 

35-JM 

11 

!        61 

45-50 

12 

80 

45  50 

13 

73 

5.5-60 

14 

43 

55-60 

the  contrary,  with  the  fable  of  The  Fishes  and  the  Pike,  which, 
he  says,  requires  "a  distinctly  intellectual  process,"  the  dull 
group  excelled  the  bright  group,  while  the  answers  of  boys  in 
an  industrial  (reform)  school  "distinctly  outranked  those  from 
both  of  the  other  groups,  but  especially  the  ones  from  the 
'bright'  division,  in  the  penetration  and  versatility  that  they 
showed." 

Terman's  tests  showed,  on  the  contrary,  thai  his  'dull'  group 
was  distinctly  inferior  to  his  'bright'  group,  for,  as  he  says: 
"in  the  first  place,  they  more  frequently  miss  the  point  of  the 
story  altogether,"  and  ''in  the  second  place,  the  dull  boys  are 
plainly  deficient  in  degree  of  abstraction.  Even  when  they  give 
an  approximately  correct  interpretation,  they  usually  express 
it  in  the  concrete  terms  of  the  given  situation,  instead  of  gen- 
eralizing it." 

This  lack  of  accordance  is  attributed  by  Terman  to  some  fault  In 
method  on  the  part  of  Swift.  "I  should  judge,"  he  says,  "that  his  results 
would  have  been  different  if  he  had  been  able  to  take  his  eases  individu- 
ally, instead  of  collectively." 

By  way  of  illustration,  the  following  quantitative  results  may  be 
quoted:  Swift  reports  that,  in  the  fable  mentioned.  27%  of  his  'bright' 
group,  as  contrasted  with  9%  of  his  'dull'  group,  thought  the  plan  wise 
and  just.  Again,  only  15%  of  the  bright  children,  as  contrasted  with 
30%  of  the  dull  children,  pointed  out  that  the  plan  would  not  help  the 
fishes  that  were  not  turned  into  pike.  When  scored  according  to  Ter- 
man's plan4  his  bright  S's  averaged  for  three  fables  the  ranks  1.3.  3.17 
and  2.83,  respectively,  while  his  dull  flf's  averaged  the  ranks  1.86,  4.57 
and  4. ."7  for  the  same  three  fables. 

Swift  states  thai  "the  answers  from  the  public-school  children  lacked 
individuality;    they   were   conventional,    while   those   from   the   reform 


4In   this   earlier   work   Terman   gave   the   score   1   for   a   satisfactory 
answer,  5  for  a  complete  failure. 


306    [672]  IMAGINATION*    AND    INVENTION 

school  gave  evidence  of  spontaneity  and  resourcefulness,"  and  he  draws 
from  this  the  dubious  conclusion  that  "the  question  may  be  seriously 
raised  whether  the  schools  do  not  train  children  to  stupidity." 

Quite  on  the  contrary,  Terman  and  Childs  cite  the  following  replies  to 
Fable  VII  given  by  pupils  13  to  17  years  of  age,  all  of  whom  were 
retarded  in  school  from  2  to  4  years : 

Fable  TIL 

"The  fox  was  slicker  than  the  crow  was." 
"Not  to  be  generous  to  people  you  don't  know." 
"Not  to  sing  when  you  have  anything  in  your  mouth." 
"To  eat  before  you  sing." 
"Not  to  be  forgetful." 
"Where  there's  a  will  there's  a  way." 
"To  eat  the  meat  and  then  sing." 
"How  to  be  wise." 

"Don't  answer  if  your  mouth  is  full." 
"Look  before  you  leap." 
"When  you  have  a  thing,  hang  on  to  it." 
"She  should  not  have  opened  her  mouth." 
"Teaches  us  to  look  for  tricks." 
"To  finish  one  thing  before  we  do  another." 

"Taught  the  crow  to  be  wise  and  not  to  open  her  mouth  when  she  had 
anything  in  it." 

(4)  Reliability.  No  statistical  constants  have  been  reported 
that  might  serve  as  coefficients  of  reliability.  It  may  be  men- 
tioned, however,  that  "an  #'s  previous  familiarity  with  the 
fables  does  not  necessarily  increase  in  the  least  his  chance  of 
winning  a  high  score."  In  one  room  of  the  Palo  Alto  schools 
the  35  pupils  had  read  some  or  all  of  the  test  fables,  but  these 
children  made  no  better  scores  than  others  of  their  age  and 
school  grade.  Terman  and  Childs  conclude  that  even  had  an 
attempt  been  made  to  teach  the  moral  of  these  fables,  it  would 
not  have  been  successful  if  the  situation  in  the  fable  was  nat- 
urally beyond  the  child's  powers  of  comprehension. 

(5)  Correlations.  Wyatt  reports  the  following  correlations 
with  interpretation  of  fables:  analogies  .71,  completion  test 
.69,  word-building  .47,  part-wholes  test  .56,  sentence  construc- 
tion .53,  memory  for  nonsense  syllables  .41,  dissected  pictures 
.26,  letter-squares  .31. 

Notes. — For  other  tests  that  present  a  certain  analogy  to  the 
interpretation  of  fables,  the  reader  may  see  Bonser's  interpre- 
tation of  poetry  (literary  interpretation),  already  mentioned, 
Mrs.  Squire's  tests  of  supplying  a  suitable  name  to,  or  of  ask- 


TEST  49:  INTERPRETATION  OF  FABLE8     [673]  307 

ing  appropriate  questions  aboul   a   cumber  of  pictures,   and 
Abelson's  test  of  interpretation  of  pictures. 

REFERENCES 

,  i  >     .\.   K.  Abelson,  Testa  Cor  mental  deficiency   In  childhood.     Tin 
Child,  3:  1912,  1-17. 

(2)  i".  <;.  Bonser,  The  reasoning  ability  of  children.  Columbiauon 
Ed,  No.  37.    New  fork,  1910. 

(3)  Carrie  it.  Squire,  Graded  mental  tests.  JEdPs,  3:  1912,  303-380, 
etc.,  especially  373-376. 

(4)  E.  J.  Swift.  Standards  of  efficiency  in  school  and  In  life.  PdSc, 
K>:  1903,  3-22,  especially  3-6. 

(5)  ]..  \i  Terman,  Genins  and  stupidity:  a  study  of  some  of  the 
intellectual  processes  of  seven  'bright'  and  seven  'stupid'  boys.  PdSc, 
13,  1906,  307-373. 

(6)  L.  M.  Terman  and  II.  <:.  Childs,  a  tentative  revision  aud  exten 
Blon  of  the  Binet-Simon  measuring  scale  <>r  intelligence.  JEdPs,  3:  1912, 
ni-71,  133-143,  198-208,  277-289,  especially  133-143. 

(7)  S.  Wy.-iii.  The  quantitative  Investigation  of  liigher  menial 
processes.    BrJPs,  6:  1913,  109-133. 


CHAPTEE   XII 

Tests  of  Intellectual  Equipment 

The  tests  of  this  chapter  differ  from  other  mental  tests  de- 
scribed in  the  present  volume  in  that  they  measure,  not  the 
efficiency  with  which  certain  typical  mental  activities  or  mental 
processes  can  function,  but  rather  the  number  of  ideas  that  an 
individual  possesses.  In  other  words,  their  purpose  is  not  to 
measure  what  the  individual  can  do,  or  how  well  he  can  do  it, 
but  what  he  knows  about — to  take  a  census,  as  it  were,  of  his 
stock  of  information.  G.  Stanley  Hall's  study  of  the  content 
of  children's  minds  on  entering  school1  is,  perhaps,  most  nearly 
allied  in  type  and  conception  with  the  tests  which  are  here 
presented. 

The  first  test  is  designed  to  secure  an  estimate  of  the  number 
of  words  in  the  reading  vocabulary  of  the  individual  tested, 
the  second  to  secure  an  estimate  of  the  number  of  subjects 
(disciplines,  phases  of  human  activity)  with  which  the  indi- 
vidual has  an  exact  or  an  approximate  acquaintance. 

TEST  50 

Size  of  vocabulary. — Since  nearly  all  thought  and  expression 
is  couched  in  linguistic  form,  and  since  the  intellectual  progress, 
of  the  child  at  school  is,  in  a  sense,  a  process  of  augmentation 
of  his  vocabulary  and  of  refinement  in  its  use,  it  seems  not  un- 
reasonable to  assume  that  the  determination  of  the  size  of  this 
vocabulary  will  be  of  significance  and  value  in  estimating  his 
general  intellectual  status. 

Experiments  conducted  by  Kirkpatrick  have  shown  that  an 
approximate  determination  of  what  might  be  termed  the  vocabu- 
lary-index can  be  secured  by  the  use  of  the  relatively  short  and 
simple  method  that  is  described  herewith.  By  extending  the 
scope  of  the  tests,  the  usual  comparative  study  may  be  made, 
and  the  index  may  be  related  to  its  conditioning  factors — age, 
sex,  school  standing,  extent  of  reading,  general  ability,  etc. 


xSee  his  Aspects  of  child  life  and  education.    Boston,  1907. 
[G74]  308 


test  50:  BIZB  OP  VOCABULARY  [675]    309 

Kirkpatrick'a  original  list  of  words  has  been  applied  by  the 
author  with  some  modifications  of  method.  Terman  and  Childs 
have  prepared  an  entirely  different  list,  on  the  ground  thai  the 

words  should  he  selected  from  a  smaller  dictionary— oue  lim- 
ited to  representative  and  more  generally  employed  words  and 
not  including  any  large  proportion  of  technical  terms.  They 
have  prepared  a  list  of  100  test-words  by  taking  the  last  word 
in  every  Gth  column  of  Laird  and  Lee's  Vest  Pocket  Webster 
Dictionary,  1904  edition.  This  dictionary  contains  18,000 
words,  though  advertised  to  contain  30,000,  whereas  the  Web- 
Bter's  Abridged  Dictionary  used  by  Kirkpatrick  contains 
28,000  words. 

Material.— Two  printed  vocabulary  tests:  the  Kirkpatrick 
list  and  the  Terman  and  Childs  list  (modified  by  the  author  in 
respect  to  instructions  for  group  testing) . 

Preliminaries. — In  accordance  with  Kirkpatrick's  plan, 
several  preliminary  exercises  are  employed,  in  order,  on  the  one 
hand,  to  obtain  data  with  regard  to  S's  general  familiarity  with 
words,  his  range  of  reading,  etc.,  and  on  the  other  hand,  to 
instill  in  him  an  attitude  of  caution  in  undertaking  the  vocabu- 
lary-test proper.    These  preliminary  exercises  are  as  follows:2 

(1)  Ask  S  to  write  the  opposite  of  the  following  terms :  good, 
long,brca1c,  rude,  simple,  permanent,  particular,  permit,  obnox- 
ious, genuine. 

(2)  Ask  8  to  tell  (orally  or  in  writing)  what  the  following 
words  mean:  abductor,  baron,  channel,  decern virate,  eschar, 
amalgamation,  bottle-holder,  concatenate,  disentomb,  filiform, 
f/ourd,  intercede,  matting,  page,  hodman,  lanuginosv.  muff.  j>Ji<> 
tograph,  scroll,  tycoon.  (Where  words  have  more  than  one 
meaning,  all  are  to  be  given.) 

(3)  Secure  from  S  a  list  of  all  the  papers  and  magazines  that 
he  is  in  the  habit  of  reading. 

(4)  Secure  from  S  the  names  of  the  books  that  lie  has  read 
during  the  past  6  months. 

(5)  Ask  8  which  of  these  books  he  liked  the  best,  why  he  liked 
it,  and  to  give  some  account  of  what  it  was  about. 

2To  follow  the  plan,  the  first  two  exercises,  at  least,  should  be  given 
whenever  grade  pupils  are  tested,  and  all  Ave  if  time  permits. 


310     [676]  INTELLECTUAL    EQUIPMENT 

(6)  Ascertain  the  birthplace  of  &'s  parents,  his  school  grade, 
and  his  favorite  school  subjects. 

Method. — Both  tests  can  be  conducted  by  handing  the  printed 
forms  to  8  and  asking  him  to  read  the  instructions  over  twice 
and  then  to  mark  the  words  carefully  in  accordance  with  them. 
But  to  secure  data  that  will  be  directly  comparable  with  those 
published  for  their  test  by  Terman  and  Childs  the  examination 
of  8  must  proceed  orally.  8  sees  the  word,  hears  it  pronounced 
by  E,  and  then  gives  its  meaning  orally.  E  scores  each  term 
0,  0.5  or  1.  The  score  1  is  given  when  8  is  able  to  give  any 
single  correct  meaning  for  the  word,  even  if  the  meaning  given 
is  not  the  commonest  one  and  even  if  the  definition  be  poorly 
expressed.  E  must  err  on  the  side  of  leniency  and  make  due 
allowance  for  the  difficulty  of  definition  in  the  case  of  children. 

The  following  illustrations  will  indicate  the  degree  of  latitude  allowed 
by  Terman  and  Childs  in  scoring  their  test:  Full  credit  (1  point)  was 
given  for:  Afloat — "a  ship  floats  on  the  water;"  civilly — "it's  when  you 
treat  a  person  nice;"  hysterics — "you  act  funny  or  crazy:"  majesty — 
"what  you  say  when  you  are  speaking  to  a  king;"  copper — "something 
you  make  money  out  of."  Half  credit  (0.5  point)  was  given  for:  sportive — 
"to  like  sports;"  pork— "a  kind  of  meat."  It  will  be  seen  that  a  very 
liberal  standard  has  been  used.  "Questioning  for  the  sake  of  drawing 
out  meanings  was  not  resorted  to  except  in  rare  instances  to  overcome 
the  child's  timidity." 

Treatment  of  Data. — The  Kirkpatrick  list  supplies  E  di- 
rectly with  the  number  of  words  marked  'plus,'  and  this  number 
indicates  the  vocabulary-index.  For  comparison  with  Kirk- 
patrick's  and  Whipple's  norms  based  on  this  test,  the  index, 
taken  as  a  per  cent.,  is  multiplied  into  28,000. 

The  Terman  and  Childs  list,  when  scored  directly  by  E  upon 
the  oral  responses  of  8,  gives  a  vocabulary-index  by  the  simple 
addition  of  points  scored,  and  this  index,  taken  as  a  per  cent., 
is  multiplied  into  18,000  to  make  direct  comparison  with  the 
absolute  size  of  vocabulary  as  computed  by  these  authors. 

The  Terman  and  Childs  list,  when  scored  by  E  on  a  basis  of 
/S"s  own  marking  (following  the  author's  set  of  instructions), 
yields  four  quantities — number  of  words  that  can  be  defined, 
that  can  be  explained,  that  are  roughly  familiar  and  that  are 
unknown.  The  equating  of  these  gradings  with  the  'points' 
used  by  Terman  and  Childs  mav  be  roughly  accomplished  by 


rBSi  50:  size  op  vocabulary  [677]  311 

regarding  each  i>'  and  TB'  as  indicating  one  poinl  and  each  T' 
as  indicating  a  half-point. 

Variations  of  Method. — To  slink  n's  tendency  to  overesti- 
mate or  underestimate  liis  vocabulary,  E  may  follow  the  plan 
used  by  the  author  with  college  Btudents,  of  giving  the  check- 
definition  lest  after  the  vocabulary  test. 

i  1  i  Give  8  the  Kirkpatrick  vocabulary  test  without  suggest 
ingthal  he  may  be  called  upon  to  justify  hismarking. 

(2)  When  the  marking  has  been  completed,  and  tin-  slip  is 

in  /."s  hands,  submil  to  8  the  following  list  of  words,  with  a  re 

(|iicsi  thai  each  word  be  defined.     Allow  l'o  min.  for  written 

definil  ions. 

Defini  riow-LiBT.' 


abductor 

Interdict 

amalgamation 

lanugo 

abet 

Interim 

amanuensis 

lanyard 

baroscope 

mattock 

amaranth 

mufti 

chanticleer 

maturate 

bottomry 

photo-lithograph 

chaos 

pudgy 

concatenate 

rejoinder 

uecemvlrate 

eschar 

escheal 

scruff 

scrunch 

subcutaneous 

disentrance 

disepalous 

disestablish 

skysail 
tendinous 

tendril 

eschalot 

gourd 

tycoon 
tymbal 

filiform 
boecake 

virago 
virescent 

(3)  For  each  8,  ascertain  from  the  definition-test:  (a)  the 
number  of  words  not  defined.  (6)  the  number  of  words  wrongly 
defined,  (c)  Add  these  fo  find  the  total  number  of  words  un- 
known in  the  list  of  40.  (>/)  Consult  the  vocabulary  test  slip 
to  see  whether  any  words  outside  the  list  of  40  are  marked  un- 
known.4 (e)  Consult  the  vocabulary-slip  again  to  see  whether 
any  words  thereon  are  marked  doubtful  and  have  not  been 
cleared  up  by  the  definition-test;  consider  these  as  unknown. 
(f)  Add  all  the  unknown  terms  to  determine  the  final  corrected 
vocabulary-index,  (y)  Compare  this  index  with  the  index  in- 
dicated by  £  on  the  vocabulary-slip  to  see  whether  8  has  over 
or  underestimated  his  vocabulary,  and  to  what  degree. 


"Concatenation,  lanuginose  and  lanuginous,  of  t he  vocabulary-test,  can, 
of  course,  be  checked  off  by  the  definitions  given  for  concatenate  and 
lanugo. 

•In  a  tost  of  Sophomores  and  Juniors  in  college  we  were  surprised  to 
And  the  following  words  in  this  category:  barque,  barouche,  i»nt<i<jir.  dU- 
entomb,  filigree,  hodman,  i><i<j<><i<i.  rejuvenate,  scroll,  sub-let,  tenderloin. 
These  wonts,  then,  it  seems,  would  have  to  be  added  to  the  40  to  secure 

a  comprehensive  lisl  of  possibly  unknown  words. 


312  [678] 


INTELLECTUAL    EQUIPMENT 


Results. —  (1)  Kirkpatrick's  computation  of  the  average 
vocabulary  is  shown  in  Table  138.  The  author's  results,  derived 
with  Kirkpatrick's  list  applied  to  70  college  students  (16  men 
and  54  women),  aged  16  to  25  years,  indicate  an  average  vocabu- 
lary of  21,728  when  computed  on  the  uncorrected  estimates  of 
the  students,  and  of  20,512  when  computed  on  the  corrections 
supplied  by  the  supplementary  definition-test. 


TABLE  138 
Average  Vocabulary  in  Relation  to  Scholastic  Status  (Kirkpatrick) 


SCHOLASTIC  STATUS 


VOCABULARY 


SCHOLASTIC  STATUS 


VOCABULARY 


Grade  Hi 

4480 

Grade  III 

6620 

Grade  IV  __ 

7020 

Grade  V 

7860 

Grade  VI 

8700 

Grade  VII 

10,660 

Grade  VIII 

12,000 

Grade  IX 

High  school,  1st  year 
High  school,  2d  year 
High  school,  3d  year 
High  school,  4th  year 
Normal-school  pupils. 
College  students 


13,400 
15,640 
16,020 
17,600 
18,720 
19,000 
20,120 


The  results  obtained  by  Terman  and  Ohilds  by  the  use  of 
their  list  with  individual,  oral  responses  from  161  children, 
aged  5  to  13  years,  are  shown  in  Table  139.  As  will  be  under- 
stood from  the  explanations  already  given,  the  vocabulary- 
index  is  larger  than  Kirkpatrick's,  but  the  absolute  vocabulary 
is  smaller. 

TABLE  139 

Relation  of  Vocabulary  to  Age:  Method  of  Terman  and  Childs 


VOCAB.  REACHED 

REVISED  NORMS 

MEDIAN 

NUMBER 
TESTED 

MEDIAN 
INDEX 

MEDIAN 
VOCAB. 

BY 
66  PER  CENT. 

AGE 

Ages 

Index 

6.5_ 

5 

13.9 

2500 

2300 

6 

12 

7.5 

14 

14.4 

2600 

2300 

7 

14 

8.5 

28 

22.0 

3960 

.  3600 

8 

18 

9.5 

35 

27.8 

5000 

4000 

9 

23 

10.6 _ 

24 

33.3 

6000 

4500 

10 

26 

11.5 

29 

33.9 

6100 

5500 

11 

30 

12.4 

19 

42.9 

7700 

6500 

12 

36 

13.0  .  . 

7 

48.9 

8800 

7400 

13 

42 

TEST  »"><•  :   SIZE  "1     VOCABULARY 


[679]  313 


The  author  has  used  the  Terman  and  Childs  list  with  10  mem- 
bers of  the  George  Junior  Bepnblic,  ages  14  to  iv:  the  aver- 
age index  was  53.8  per  cent.  Be  lias  also  employed  the  Bame 
l'si  by  the  written  response  (group  method)  with  Sophomores 
at  Cornel]  Dniversity,  with  the  results  indicated  in  Table  L40. 

TABLE  140 

Vocabularies  of  Twenty  College  Students:    Terman  and  Childs  List 

i  Whipple) 


NUMBER 

D 

E 

F 

N 

ESTIMATED   INDEX 

Men 10      '    65.1        20.8         6.7          7.4                89.3 

Women 10      1    56.3    I    29.2         8.5          6.0               89.8 

On  the  vocabularies  of  children  below  the  age  <d  ('»  consult 
Whipple  (13)  for  the  chief  studies  prior  to  1908,  and  Boyd  (4). 
Hush  (5),  Gh6*orgov  (6)  and  Heilig  (7)  for  studies  subsequent 
to  that  date.  For  methods  and  results  of  securing  vocabularies 
from  imbeciles  and  other  feeble  minded  consult  Bind  and 
Simon   (3)  and  Town   (11). 

(2)  In  the  author's  definition-test }  qo  word  of  the  in  was  cor- 
rectly defined  by  every  student,  and  since,  as  has  been  noted. 
there  remained  1.6  other  words  that  -were  unknown  or  doubtful, 
it  follows  that  only  44  of  the  1<»<>  words  in  Kirkpat  rick's  list 
were  certainly  known  by  every  one  of  70  college  students. 

(3)  There  is  wide  individual  variation  in  the  size  of  the 
vocabularies  of  students  of  the  same  age  and  scholastic  status. 


TABLE   141 

Distribution  of  Corrtrt,.i  Vocabulary  Index.    Seventy  College  Students 

{Whipple) 


INDEX 

55-59 

60-64 

65-69 

7C-74 

75-79 

80-84 

85-89 

No.  of  cases         1 

6                 13                22 

19                   5 

Highest  index,  89%. 

Average  index.  73.26* ! , 

lowest  index,  " : 

314   [080] 


INTELLECTUAL    EQUIPMENT 


This  variation  is  shown  by  the  distribution  in  Table  141.  The 
largest  college-student  vocabulary  found  by  the  writer  with 
Kirkpatrick's  list  is  21,920  (89  per  cent.)  ;  the  smallest  is  16,240 
(58  per  cent.),  or  approximately  the  vocabulary  assigned  by 
Kirkpatrick  to  the  average  25-year  high-school  pupil. 

(4)  No  positive  sex  differences  have  been  established,  though 
there  is  a  suggestion  of  superiority  of  boys  over  girls,  and  of 
men  over  women. 

(5)  In  general,  pupils  that  read  the  most  books  and  maga- 
zines have  the  largest  vocabularies. 

(6)  Kirkpatrick  found  a  tendency  toward  positive  correlation 
between  class  standing  (teachers'  grades)  and  vocabulary- 
index:  "those  ranking  high  in  scholarship  knew  on  an  average 
about  5  per  cent,  more  words  than  those  ranking  low  in  scholar- 
ship." The  author  found  a  more  decided  correlation  (r  = 
+  0.45,  P.E.  =  0.06)  between  the  index  of  58  college  students 
and  their  grades  in  his  classes  in  educational  psychology. 

(7)  When  no  precautionary  measures  are  taken  to  offset  the 
tendency,  the  determination  of  the  vocabulary-index  is  com- 
monly affected  by  overestimation.  Inspection  of  Table  142  will 
show  that  59  of  the  70  college  students  examined  by  the  author 
overestimated,  while  but  10  underestimated  their  vocabulary : 
the  largest  overestimation  was  18  per  cent.;  the  largest  under- 
estimation was  4  per  cent.    Since  20,  or  more  than  one-quarter 


TABLE  142 

Overestimation  of  the  Vocabulary  Index.    Seventy  College  Students 

(Whipple) 


PER  CENT. 

OVERESTIMATED 

NUMBER 

PER  CENT.  OVERESTIMATED 

NUMBER 

18 

1 

5 

7 

15 

2 

4 

6 

14 

3 

3 

7 

13 

1 

2 

10 

12 

3 

1 

9 

11 

1 

0 

1 

9 

2 

—1 

6 

8 

2 

—2 

2 

7 

1 

—4 

2 

6 

4 

. 

TEST  50:   SIZE  OF    VOCABDLARI  |,;>1i    315 

of  the  Btudenta  overestimated  by  5  per  cent,  or  more,  M  is  evi- 
dent that,  without  a  somewhat  elaborate  definition  check,  the 
reliability  of  the  vocabulary  tesl  is  distinctly  lessened. 

is  i  The  definition  tesl  reveals  an  unexpectedly  Large  Dumber 
of  erroneous  definitions.  The  source  of  these  errors  may  fre- 
quently be  traced  to  confusion  with  words  of  similar  appear- 
ance or  to  fancied  etymological  derivations.  The  following  list 
shows  typical  errors  in  definition  by  college  students;  the  as- 
sumed source  of  confusion  is  indicated  by  the  terms  in  paren- 
theses after  the  delittit  inns  : 

amanuensis  -poet  laureate,  lovingness  (amativeness). 

amaranth — a  precious  stone  (amethyst). 

abet— although  (albeit),  a  wager  (a  +  bet),  diminish  (abate). 

bottomry     the  art  of  bottoming  chairs,  deceit,  bottom  of  anything. 

chanticleer    one  who  sings  a  loud  song,  one  who  lends  a  chant 

deeemvirate — composed  of  five,  count  out  by  tens,  formerly  ;i  group  of 
ten  men,  but  any  number  now. 

disentrance — failure  to  enter. 

disepalous — apart  from  the  bead,  without  shoulders  (di  :-  ceph- 
alous?). 

gourd— reward  (guerdon),  to  slash  or  whip  (goad),  morning  glory. 

interim — time  between  two  reigns  (interregnum).  . 

lanugo — a  kind  of  language. 

lanyard    yard  where  leather  is  tanned  (tanyard),  yard  about  the  lane. 

mattock     a  lock  of  hair  (matted  locks?),  a  kind  of  bird,  a  sort  of  rug, 

a  kind  of  robe  (cassock  i . 

maturate— to  ripen   (mature),  to  matriculate. 

sky-sail— a  sail  in  the  sky.  a  kite. 

tycoon-  a  violent  wind  (typhoon),  an  animal,  a  Bilk-WOl'm,  a  natural 
phenomena  (sic). 

tendril — a  membrane  connecting  two  bones  (tendon). 

tendinous — capable  of  endurance  (tenacious?). 

scrunch — a  good  for  nothing  person   (scrug?). 

virago-  a  kind  of  bird  (  It   (vireo),  a  disease,  giddiness  (vertigo). 

virescent-  -sparkling  (iridescent  |,  of  or  pertaining  to  man  (  !  t    (virile). 

Notes. —  (1)  Thegreatesl  source  of  unreliability  in  the  vocab- 
ulary tests  iii  which  fl-'s  mark  their  own  papers  lies  in  individual 
differences  in  the  subjective  standard  employed  by  differenl  S's 


This  result  may  be  compared  with  Kirkpatrick's  conclusion  thai  very 

young  children  are  apt  to  underestimate  because  the  isolated  words  of  the 
list  fail  to  arouse  associations  such  as  they  would  If  they  had  a  context. 
Again,  when  Kirkpatrick  defined  the  words  of  The  list  to  normal-school 
students,  he  found  that  the  errors  of  over-  and  underestimation  tended  to 
cancel  one  another:  while  when  college  Classes  defined  20  words,  lit  of 
246  students  (aboul  16  per  cent)  correctly  defined  the  same  proportion 
that  they  bad  marked  as  known,  and  only  7  per  cent,  erred  by  as  much 
ns  3  in  20. 


316    [6S2]  INTELLECTUAL    EQUIPMENT 

by  the  'known'-or-'unknown'  method :  some  Sf's  mark,  as  known, 
words  which  are  little  more  than  familiar;  others  mark  words 
as  known  only  when  they  can  define  them  accurately. 

(2)  This  leads  one  to  say  again  that,  especially  in  the  case 
of  young  children,  there  may  be  a  tendency  toward  underesti- 
mation of  the  vocabulary  because  isolated  words  sometimes  fail 
to  arouse  the  interpretative  meanings  that  they  would  arouse 
at  once  in  their  customary  context.  In  so  far  as  appeal  to  the 
ear  as  well  as  to  the  eye  is  of  assistance  to  young  children  whose 
vocabulary  is  largely  auditory,  this  source  of  error  is  partially 
offset  by  the  procedure  adopted  by  Terman  and  Childs  of  read- 
ing the  list  aloud  to  them. 

(3)  In  grading  the  definition  test,  it  is  at  times  rather  diffi- 
cult to  decide  from  the  definitions  whether  8  does  or  does  not 
know  the  meaning  of  a  word  with  sufficient  exactness  to  be  cred- 
ited with  knowledge  of  the  term  in  question.  In  general,  it  is 
better,  in  consideration  of  the  difficulty  of  accurate  definition 
and  of  the  short  time  usually  available  for  this  part  of  the  test, 
to  err  on  the  side  of  leniency. 

Thus  the  following  definitions  might  he  accepted:  'disestablish — to 
overthrow,'  'decemvirate — a  body  of  ten,'  'mattock— a  garden  tool,' 
'amaranth — a  flower ;'  while  the  following  ought,  in  our  opinion,  to  be 
disallowed:  'lanyard — one  of  the  spars  of  a  ship,'  'decemvirate — Roman 
civil  officer,'  'gourd — a  hollow  vessel  from  which  to  eat  and  drink,'  'con- 
catenate— to  argue,'  'baroscope — an  instrument  for  measuring  something.' 

(4)  The  pamphlet  issued  by  Ayres  (1)  is  of  interest  as  show- 
ing how  few  words,  relatively  speaking,  are  employed  in  the 
conduct  of  ordinary  correspondence.  Out  of  a  total  of  23,629 
works,  taken  by  the  method  of  random  samples  from  2,000  let- 
ters, there  were  only  2,001  different  words. 

REFERENCES 

(1)  L.  P.  Ayres,  The  spelling  vocabularies  of  personal  and  business 
letters.     (No.  E  12G,  Russell  Sage  Foundation.)     New  York,  1914.    Pp.  14. 

(2)  E.  H.  Babbitt,  A  vocabulary  test.     PopSciM,  70:  1907,  378. 

(3)  A.  Binet  et  Th.  Simon,  Langage  et  pensee.  AnPs,  14:  190S,  284- 
339. 

(4)  W.  Boyd,  The  development  of  a  child's  vocabulary.  P<lSc,  21  : 
1914,  95-124. 


TEST  ol  :  RANGE  OF  INFORMATION  [<J*3]    '-ill 

(5)     A.  D.  Bush,  The  vocabulary  of  a  three-year-old  girl.    PdBe,  21 : 

191  I.   125-1  I'-'. 

(i;)  I.  Gheorgov,  Le  developpenient  du  langage  chez  ['enfant  (Ile- 
prinl  from  Firs!  Intern.  Cong.  Pedology.)     Ledeberg-Gand,  1912.    Pp.  18. 

(7)  M.  R.  Heilig,  A  child's  vocabulary.    PdBe,  20:  L913,  1-16. 

(8)  E.  Kirkpatrick,  Number  of  words  In  an  ordinary  vocabulary.  Bci, 
18:  1891,  107-8. 

(9)  i:   Kirkpatrick.  A  vocabulary  test.    PopSciM,  70:  1007,  157-164 

( 10)  I..  M.  Termau  and  ll.  <;.  Chi  Ids,  A  tentative  revision  and  exten- 
sion of  tiic  Binet-Siinon  measuring  Bcale  of  intelligence.  JEdPs,  3  :  1912, 
61-74,  133  143,  198-208,  277-289,  especially  205-208. 

(ill  Clara  H.  Town,  A  study  of  speech  development  in  two  hundred 
and  eighty-five  idiots  and  Imbeciles.    JPs  Ls,  17:  1912,  7-15. 

(12)  (i.  M.  Whipple,  Vocabulary  and  word-building  tests.  PaR,  15: 
1908,  94-105. 

(13)  G.  M.  Whipple  and  Mrs.  Whipple,  The  vocabulary  of  a  three- 
year-old  l>oy,  with  some  Interpretative  comments.  PdBe,  1 « « :  1909,  1-22. 
(Contains  references  to  27  articles  on  children's  vocabularies.) 


TEST  51 

Range  of  information. — The  words  that  comprise  Kirk- 
patrick's  vocabulary  test  are  intentionally  selected  by  chance: 
some  of  them,  like  page,  happen  to  be  most  ordinary  and  every- 
day terms;  others,  like  lanuginose,  are  unusual,  technical  terms. 
The  extent  of  S's  acquaintance  with  words  of  the  latter  kind 
depends  almost  entirely  upon  the  nature  of  Ins  school  train- 
ing, or  upon  the  quantity  and  type  of  his  general  reading. 

The  range  of  information  test  has  been  devised  by  the  author 
as  an  extension  of  the  vocabulary  test.  The  hundred  test  words 
have  been  selected,  not  by  chance,  but  by  careful  consideration, 
and  in  such  a  manner  that  each  shall  be  representative  of  some 
specific  field  of  knowledge  or  activity,  in  the  sense  that  if  S  has 
made  himself  familiar  with  a  given  field,  he  will  almost  cer- 
tainly know  the  word  selected  from  that  field,  whereas  if  he  has 
not  made  himself  familiar  with  the  Held,  he  will  almost  cer- 
tainly not  know  the  term,  or  at  least  will  not  have  such  knowl- 
edge of  it  as  (o  enable  him  to  define  it  exactly.  Thus,  general 
knowledge  of  American  history  is  tested  by  the  name  Anthony 
Wayne,  knowledge  of  Freneh  by  aujourd'hui,  of  chemistry  by 
chlorine,  of  ethics  by  hedonism,  of  golf  by  midiron,  of  social 
usages  by  R.  &.  V.  I\,  of  the  technique  of  photography  by  f-64. 
etc. 


318  [684] 


1 XTELLECI  LA  I.    EQUIPMENT 


Material.— Specially  prepared  test-blank  containing  100  test- 
words,  directions  for  marking  tkern,  and  a  request  for  10 
definitions. 

Method. — Place  the  blank  in  S's  hands;  ask  Mm  to  read  the 
directions  through  twice  before  marking  the  words,  and  call . 
his  attention  to  the  request  for  definitions  as  printed  below  the 
test-words.    Let  him  take  his  own  time. 

For  exact  results,  8  should  afterward  be  required  to  define 
every  word  that  he  has  marked  D,  and  to  explain  or  attempt  to 
explain  every  word  that  he  has  marked  E  or  F.  This  check  test 
should,  by  preference,  be  conducted  orally.  In  practise,  how- 
ever, especially  when  testing  by  the  group  method,  such  careful 
checking  may  prove  too  onerous;  erroneous  definitions  may  then 
be  neglected,  or  the  quantitative  data  may  be  revised  by  dis- 
counting on  the  basis  of  the  percentage  of  error  revealed  in  the 
definitions  actually  given.  Or,  again,  E  may,  after  the  test  is 
concluded,  define  the  100  words,  and  let  each  8  revise  his  own 
paper  by  placing  a  second  series  of  marks  after  each  word  to 
indicate  the  manner  in  which  he  should  have  marked  it.  A  com- 
parison of  the  sums  of  the  Z)'s,  £'s,  Fs  and  N's  of  tbe  first  and 
of  the  second  series  will  then  show  approximately  the  extent 
and  nature  of  the  error  due  to  ignorance  or  misunderstanding 
of  the  real  meanings. 

Results. —  (1)  Dependence  on  school  training.  Results  ob- 
tained by  the  author  at  Cornell  University  and  the  Ithaca. 
N.  Y.,  High  School,  and  by  Miss  Smith  at  the  University  of 
Texas  are  presented  in  Tables  143  and  114.  In  both  it  is  evident 
that  advance  in  school  training,  together,  of  course,  with  in- 


TABLE  143 
Dependence  of  Range  of  Information  on  Academic  Status  (Whipple) 


ACADEMC STATUS 

NUMBER 

D 

E 

F 

N 

Graduates 

4 

5 
10 
30 
52 

39.0 
20.6 
24.8 
17.7 
6.8 

21.0 
17.2 
12.0 
12.7 
7.6 

12.2 
25.2 
23.7 
17.3 
16.3 

27.0 

Seniors.-  

37.0 

Juniors 

39.5 

Sophomores. 

52.2 

High   School 

69.3 

TEST  51:  BANGS  uf  INFORMATION 


31^ 


creased  maturity,  is  paralleled  by  au  increase  in  the  number 
of  technical  terms  that  can  be  defined  (D),  explained  ( /' i .  or 
that  are  at  least  familiar  i/'j,  and  by,  naturally,  a  correspond- 
ing decrease  in  the  number  of  terms  thai  an-  new  or  un- 
known (A  i. 

TABLE   144 
Dependence  of  Range  of  Information  on  Academic  Status   (Smith) 


ACADEMIC   STATUS 

NUMBER 

D 

E 

F 

N 

Graduates 

Seniors 

Juniors 

Sophomores 

Freshmen 

9 

47 

59 

85 

153 

38.11 
24.90 
20.50 
20.10 
13.70 

12.11 
16.70 
14.40 
12.10 
10.70 

15.67 
19.30 
20.70 
19.10 
15.50 

34.11 

39.10 
44.40 

48.70 
60.10 

(2)  Dependence  on  sex.  The  results  obtained  at  Ithaca  and 
Austin,  reclassified  by  sex,  are  shown  in  Table  145,  where  it  is 
evident  that  there  exists  a  superiority  of  range  of  information 
in  the  males. 


TABLE    145 

Dependence  of  Range  of  Information  on  Sex  (Whipple  and  Smith) 


NUMBER 

D 

E 

F 

N 

Ithaca  men 

Ithaca  women.. 
Texas  men    _ 
Texas  women__ 

44 

57 
162 
173 

15.79            11.98            18.22 
12.21             9.42            17.19 
21.00            12.70            15.60 
15.20            13.20            19.30 

54.02 
61.17 

50.70 
52.30 

(3)   The  results  just  figured  are  'raw'  results;  strictly  speak- 
in";,  these  should  be  revised  on  the  basis  of  an  extended  series 
of  definitions,  as  recommended  in  the  Vocabulary  Test  i  No.  50  I 
since  an  inspection  of  the  definitions  and  explanations  actually 
given  reveals  in  the  majority  of  the  papers  one  or  more  errors. 


u20    [686]  INTELLECTUAL   EQUIPMENT 

due  iu  the  main  to  confusion  with  words  of  similar  appearance 
or  to  fancied  etymological  derivations.  The  following  list 
shows  typical  errors  in  defiuition  by  college  and  high-school 
students;  the  assumed  source  of  confusion  is  indicated  by  the 
terms  in  parenthesis  after  the  definitions : 

ageratum — an  aggregation  of  objects:  the  aggragate  (sic)  amount. 

annealed — pressed  or  rolled  out  thin :  molded  together. 

Anthony  Wayne — a  historic  character  who  was  hung  in  the  cause  of 
freedom  for  the  blacks :  a  man  who  fought  in  the  Revolution  on  the 
PJnglish  side. 

Babcock  test — a  device  to  ascertain  whether  or  not  cattle  have  tuber- 
culosis. 

base-hit — when  the  ball  is  hit  and  strikes  a  base  or  is  caught  there :  a 
ball  batted  over  a  base :  when  the  striker  bats  the  ball  into  the  pitcher's 
bands. 

Bokhara — name  of  a  place  in  Austria. 

cantilever — a  bar  with  a  hook  in  one  end  by  which  lumbermen  roll  logs 
(canthook). 

catalepsy — a  form  of  disorder  of  the  nervous  system  which  causes  fits 
or  convulsions  (epilepsy).     (Similar  statements  given  by  15  persons.) 

chamfer — the  tree  from  which  camphor  gum  is  obtained :  this  is  the 
simplified  spelling  of  it  (  !).  (The  confusion  with  camphor  was  found  in 
4  papers.) 

clearing-house — a  sale  that  takes  place  when  a  store  wishes  to  dispose 
of  its  stock  (clearing  sale)  :  a  place  where  clearing  papers  are  given  to 
vessels  to  enable  them  to  leave  the  harbor  (customs  house  +  clearing  of 
vessels)  :  picking  up  everything  to  move;  taking  everything  out  of  a 
house :  a  place  used  by  express  companies  to  sell  uncalled-for  goods :  a 
house  where  goods  are  made  ready  to  be  delivered. 

cotangent — name  of  one  of  two  tangents  drawn  to  a  circle  from  the 
same  point  without  the  circle:  one  lying  alongside  of  (contingent): 
straight  line  drawn  to  touch  a  circle  at  one  point  (tangent). 

dibble — to  get  just  a  smattering  of  some  subject,  as  to  dibble  in  medi- 
cine or  politics  (dabble)  :  to  do  with  divided  interest  (dawdle). 

dryad — a  priest  of  early  English  times  (druid). 

entree— first  course  at  a  banquet,  usually  soup :  something  in  the  way 
of  food,  new  and  out  of  season :  when  the  waiter  brings  in  a  new  course 
it  is  called  an  entre :  French  for  'to-day':  French  for  'between'  (entre). 

Eocene — the  term  applied  to  one  of  the  early  ages  of  civilization. 

Euclid — a  book  written  by  Vergil  (^Dneid)  :  name  given  to  certain 
trees  (eucalyptus)  :  an  ancient  Egyptian  who  studied  geometry:  name  of 
an  avenue  in  Cleveland,  Ohio. 

f-Gi — means  the  temperature  is  G4  degrees  above  zero,  Fahrenheit. 

f.  o.  b. — cash  on  delivery  (c.  o.  d)  :  forward  on  board. 

golden  section — the  section  of  the  West  most  prosperous. 

hydraulic  press — a  kind  of  air-pump,  rather  complicated,  operated  by 
suction  and  pressure:  a  machine  for  washing  dirt  from  gold  or  from 
steep  slopes  (hydraulic  mining)  :  the  force  with  which  water  flows  upon 
or  against  a  thing,  as  a  paddle  wheel. 

impressionism — when  a  man  imitates  the  looks  or  actions  of  another : 
the  art  of  exciting  an  impression. 

infusoria — a  chemical  herb  (infusion?). 


TEST  51:  BANGS  UL'  INFORMATION  l^^J    821 

kilogram— the  greatest  quantity  In  the  metric  system:  French  measure 
of  distance  (kilometer)  :  French  unit  of  liquid  measure:  the  weight  of  0 
cuhe  of  water  whose  dimensions  are  a  kilometer. 

Lea  Miserable*— a  French  tragedy  written  about  the  last  part  of  the 
17th  century  by  Racine,  one  of  the  famous  French  writers:  French  work 
written  by  George  Sand,  author  of  Le  Diable. 

linotype — the  product  of  a  certain  method  of  making  prints  from 
photographs. 

Millet— a  blind  port  (Milton). 

natural  selection — in  nature  each  animal  selects  its  mate,  a  device  for 
building  up  a  stronger  race. 

ohm — German  word  for  uncle  (Oheim). 

Polonius — a  prominent  character  in  Julius  Cae>:ir. 

pomology — the  study  of  the  palm  of  the  band,  used  by  fortune  tellers 
(palmistry). 

tort — French  word  for  ugly  (torsf). 

triple  expansion — the  expanding  of  anything  three  times  its  normal 
size. 

Utopia — a  silk  factory. 

way-bill— a  bill  that  Is  being  considered. 

Zionism — same  as  Dowieism. 

(4)    A   comparison  of  scores   made  by   IS   summer-session 

students,  before  and  after  the  definition  by  E  of  the  100  terms, 
shows  the  following  averages:  first  marking,  D  =  20.30,  E  = 
14.77,  F  =  18.30,  X  =  46.44;  second  marking,  D  =  19.77, 
E  =  20.22,  F  =  10.55,  N  =  40.44.  So  far  as  these  Sf's  are  con- 
cerned, then,  it  appears  that  at  first  they  had  overestimated 
terms  definable  and.  more  particularly,  terms  unknown.  The 
principal  effect  of  L"s  explanations  was  to  increase  by  about 
0  per  cent,  the  number  of  terms  marked  as  explainable,  and  to 
decrease  by  0  per  cent,  the  number  of  terms  marked  as  unknown. 
Note. — Attention  may  he  called  to  the  suggestive  method 
devised  by  Franken  (1),  the  purpose  of  which  is  to  test  no1  so 
much  the  range  of  informal  ion  of  pupils,  but  rather  the  degree 
to  which  they  overestimate  their  range  and  the  extent  to  which 
this  overestimation  may  be  reduced  by  proper  drill  and  institu- 
tion. A  series  of  questions  drawn  from  school  work  is  pro- 
pounded, first  in  a  form  that  inquires  as  to  the  existence  of  the 
information  and  that  requires  merely  the  answer  •yes'  or  'no.' 
After  this  series  has  been  answered,  the  same  questions  are 
given  in  a  second  form  that  demands  a  specific  answer.  Ex- 
amples: first  form:  "Do  yon  know  what  city  is  the  capital  of 
France"?  Second  form:  "What  city  is  the  capital  of  France"? 
For  various  ways  of  conducting  tests  by  these  two  forms  of 


322    [688J  INTELLECTUAL    EQUIPMENT 

questions  the  original  articles  should  be  consulted.  Franken's 
method  is  in  many  features  more  akin  to  the  'Aussage'  test 
i  No.  32) . 

REFERENCES 

(1)  A.  Franken,  («)  Ueber  die  Erziebbarkeit  der  Erinneruugsaussage 
bei  Scbulkindern.  ZPdPs,  12:  1911,  635-042.  (b)  Aussageversuche  naeh 
der  Methode  der  Eutseheidungs-  und  Bestimmungsfrage  bei  Erwachsenen 
und  Kindern.    ZAtif/Ps,  0:  1912,  174-253. 

(2)  Laura  L.  Smitb,  Whipple's  range  of  information  test.  PsR,  20: 
1913,  517-518. 

(3)  G.  M.  Whipple,  A  range  of  information  test.  PsR,  16:  1909, 
347-351. 


CHAPTEK    XIII 

Serial  Graded  Tests  for  Developmental  Diagnosis 

Tlif  omission  from  this  volume  of  ilif  de  Sanctis  tests  and 
of  the  Binet-Simon  tests  demands  a  brief  explanation.     The 

reasons  that  have  led  to  iliis  omission  are:  first,  the  extension 
of  the  material  of  the  preceding  pages  lias  brought  the  volume 
to  dimensions  already  in  excess  of  the  original  plans;  secondly, 
the  nnmbei  of  published  investigations  bearing  upon  the  Binet 
tests  is  so  enormous  i  Kohs'  bibliography  lisis  25 1  I  itles  to  .lane, 
i'.tll)  that  the  proper  consideration  of  so  much  material  de- 
mands moie  time  than  can  be  permitted;  thirdly,  the  extensive 
use  of  the  Binet  tests  has  given  rise  to  so  many  variations  in 
method  of  application  and  scoring  that  there  now  exist  numer- 
ous issues  upon  each  one  of  which  an  authoritative  presentation 
must  take  a  definite  and  justified  stand — something  which  is 
impossible  without  extensive  comparison  of  the  views  of  various 
writers  and  resolution  of  the  conflicting  views  on  the  basis  of 
careful  first-hand  investigation;  fourthly,  there  are  now  avail 
able  a  number  of  pamphlets  of  directions  prepared  by  compe 
tent  writers  (Goddard,  Kuhlmann,  Schwegler,  Terman,  Town. 
W'imh.  ei  ah.  so  that  the  need  for  a  Binet  handbook  that  was 
felt  when  the  first  edition  of  ihis  Manual  appeared  is  now  suffi- 
ciently met.  and  it  would  be  only  adding  confusion  to  present 
still  another  version  of  the  tests  if  it  were  set  forth  without 
sufficient  justification  to  claim  attention  as  a  standardized 
\  eision. 

It  is  my  hope,  however,  to  issue  later  a  supplementary  vol- 
ume that  will  discuss  the  rationale  of  combinations  of  tests 
into  systems,  that  will  deal  with  the  Binet  tests  in  a  compre- 
hensive manner,  and  that  will  include  also  other  systems  i-i 
tests,  such  its  the  de  Sanctis  tests  and  the  psychological-profile 
method  of  Bossolimo.  In  the  meantime,  the  selected  references 
that  follow  will  serve  to  guide  the  reader  to  some  of  the  more 
important  discussions  in  English  of  two  of  these  test  systems. 

[6S9]  323 


324    [600J  DEVELOPMENTAL   DIAGNOSIS 

REFERENCES 

(1)  J.  C.  Bell,  Recent  literature  on  the  Binet  tests.  JEdPs,  3:  1912, 
101-110. 

(2)  C.  S.  Berry,  A  comparison  of  the  Binet  tests  of  190S  and  1911. 
JEdPs,  3 :  1912,  444-4.31. 

(3)  H.  H.  Goddard,  (a)  The  Binet-Simon  measuring  scale  for  intelli- 
gence. Revised.  TrSc,  8:  1911,  56-02.  (b)  Two  thousand  normal  chil- 
dren measured  by  the  Binet  measxiring  scale  of  intelligence.  PdSe,  18 : 
1911,  232-259.  (c)  Standard  method  for  giving  the  Binet  test.  TrSc, 
10 :  1913,  23-30. 

(4)  E.  B.  Huey,  (a)  The  Binet  Scale  for  measuring  intelligence  and 
retardation.  JEdPs,  1:  1910,  435-444.  (b)  The  present  status  of  the 
Binet  scale  of  tests  for  the  measurement  of  intelligence.  PsBu,  9:  1912, 
100-1G8.  (c)  Backward  and  feeble-minded  children.  EdPsMon,  1912. 
Pp.  221. 

(5)  S.  C.  Kohs,  The  Binet-Simon  measuring  scale  for  intelligence: 
an  annotated  bibliography.  JEdPs,  5:  1914,  215-224,  279-290,  335-340. 
(Also  sold  separately.) 

(6)  F.  Kuhlmann,  (a)  A  revision  of  the  Binet-Simon  system  for 
measuring  the  intelligence  of  children.  Mon.  Suppl.  of  JPsAstli,  1:  1912. 
Pp.  41.  (b)  Some  results  of  examining  a  thousand  public  school  chil- 
dren with  a  revision  of  the  Binet-Simon  tests  of  intelligence  by  untrained 
examiners.  JPsAsth,  18:  1914,  150-179,  233-2G9.  (Also  published 
separately.) 

(7)  S.  de  Sanctis,  Mental  development  and  the  measure  of  the  level 
of  intelligence.    JEdPs,  2:  1911,  498-507. 

(8)  R.  A.  Schwegler.  A  teachers'  manual  for  the  use  of  the  Binet- 
Simon  scale  of  intelligence.  (Selected  bibliography  of  56  titles.)  Univ. 
of  Kansas,  School  of  Education,  1914.    Pp.  56. 

(9)  W.  Stern,  The  psvchological  methods  of  testing  intelligence. 
EdPsMon,  No.  13,  1914.     Pp.  160. 

(10)  L.  M.  Termau.  Suggestions  for  revising,  extending  and  supple- 
menting the  Binet  intelligence  tests.  Intern.  Conf.  School  Hyg.,  Buffalo, 
N.  Y.,  1913. 

(11)  L.  M.  Terman  and  H.  G.  Childs,  A  tentative  revision  and  ex- 
tension of  the  Binet-Simon  scale  of  intelligence.  JEdPs,  3 :  1912,  61-74, 
133-143,  198-20S,  277-289. 

(12)  Clara  H.  Town  (translator),  A  method  of  measuring  the  de- 
velopment of  the  intelligence  of  young  children,  by  A.  Binet  and  Th. 
Simon.     Lincoln,  111.,  1913. 

(13)  J.  E.  W.  Wallin,  (a.)  Experimental  studies  of  mental  defectives. 
A  critique  of  the  Binet-Simon  tests.  EdPsMon,  No.  7,  1912.  Pp.  155. 
(b)  The  mental  health  of  the  school  child.    New  Haven,  1914.    Pp.  463. 


APPENDIX  I 

Formulas  for  Converting    Measures    (English  and    Metric   Systems) 

Measures  of  l-<  ngth  '/■  asures  of  Capacity 

1  n,m.      0.0394  inch.  '  cu.  ein.  =  0.061  cu.  In. 

1  cm.      0.3937  inch.  1  cu.  m.z=l<;.4  cu.  cm. 
l   ni.      39.37  inches.  .  . 

l   in       •_;..->  4  on.  '/'  asures  >>i  11  etyht 

1  ft.  =  0.3048  in.  1  gram  =  0.035  oz. 

i   kg.      2.204  11 «. 

Measures  of  Surface  '  oz.=    28.35g. 

1  sq.  cm.  =  0.155  sq.  in.  1   lb.  =  453.59g. 
1  sq.  in.      6. 152  sq.  cm. 

APPENDIX  II 

List  of  Abbreviations 

The  following  abbreviations,  save  for  a  few  additions,  are  identical 
with  those  recommended  aud  employed  in  the  Zeitschrift  fiir  angewandte 
Psychologie,  v.  Hef1  5-0,  VI,  Hefl  5  6. 

AmAnt:    American  Anthropologisl    (Lancaster,  Pa.). 

ImJIns:    American  Journal  of  Insanity  (Baltimore,  Md.). 

\mJPhg:     American  Journal  of  Physiology  (Boston,  Mass.). 

AmJPs:     American  Journal  of  Psychology  (Worcester,  Mass.). 

AmJSci:    American  Journal  of  Science  (New  Haven,  Conn.  i. 

InPs:     L'Annee  psychologique  (Paris). 

ArGsPhg:  Archiv  fur  die  gesamte  Physiologie  des  Menschen  und  der 
Tiere  ( Bonn ). 

[rOsPs:    Archiv  fiir  die  gesamte  Psychologie  (Leipzig). 

ArP8(e):    Archives  of  Psychology  (New  York). 

ArPs(f) :    Archives  de  Psychologie   (Geneva,  Switzerland). 

BuAcRoySci:  Bulletins  de  PAcadeinie  Royale  des  Sciences,  des  Lettres 
el  des  Beaux-arts  de  Belgique  (Brussels). 

BerlinKlW:    Berliner  Klinische  Wochenschrift  (Berlin) 

BiZb:     Biologisches  Zentralblatl   (Erlangen). 

BrJPs:     British  Journal  of  Psychology  (Cambridge,  England). 

BuSocEtPsEnf :  Bulletin  de  la  Societe  libre  pour  letude  psychologique 
de  I'enfanl   <  Paris ». 

ColumbiaConEd:    Columbia  Contributions  to  Education  (New  York). 

ColumbiaConPhPs:  Columbia  Contributions  to  Philosophy  and  Psychol- 
ogy i  New  York). 

DMdW:     Deutsche  Medizinische  Wochenschrift   (Leipzig). 

Ed:     Educai  ion  i  Boston,  Mass. ). 

EPd:    Die  experimentelle  Padagogik  (Leipzig). 

EdPsMon:    Educational  Psychology  Monographs  (Haiti more.  Md.). 

I  si's:    Fortschritte  der  Psychologie  and  Ihre  Anwendungen  (Berlin!. 

InMagScUyg:    International  Magazine  of  School  Hygiene  (Leipzig). 

325 


:.V2ii  .MANUAL    OF    MENTAL    AND    PHYSICAL    TESTS 

JAntlxst:  Journal  of  the  Anthropological  Institute  of  Great  Britain 
and  Ireland  (London). 

JEdPs:    The  Journal  of  Educational  Psychology  (Baltimore.  Md.). 

JEPd:  Journal  of  Experimental  Pedagogy  and  Training  College  Record 
( London ) . 

JNeMeDis:    Journal  of  Nervous  and  Mental  Disease  (New  York). 

JPh:  Journal  of  Philosophy,  Psychology  and  Scientific  Methods  (New 
York). 

JPhg:    Journal  of  Physiology  (Cambridge.  England). 

JPsAsth:    Journal  of  Psycho-Asthenics  (Faribault,  Minn.). 

NeMeDisMon:  Nervous  and  Mental  Disease  Monograph  Series  (New 
York ) . 

PdPsArb:     Padagogisch-psychologische  Arbeiten  (Leipzig). 

PdSe:    Pedagogical  Seminary  (Worcester,  Mass.). 

PcllJb:    Paedologisch  Jaarboek  (Antwerp). 

PhR:     Philosophical  Review  (Lancaster,  Pa.). 

PhSd:    Philosophische  Studien  (Leipzig). 

PopSciM:    Popular  Science  Monthly  (Garrison,  N.  Y.). 

PsArb:     Psychologische  Arbeiten   (Leipzig). 

PsBu:     Psychological  Bulletin  (Lancaster,  Pa.). 

PsCl:     Psychological  Clinic  (Philadelphia,  Pa.). 

PsMon:     Psychological  Monographs  (Lancaster,  Ta.). 

PsR:     Psychological  Review  (Lancaster,  Pa.). 

RcpComEd:  Report  United  States  Commissioner  of  Education  (Wash- 
ington, D.  C). 

RMdSuisse:  Revue  mcdicale  de  la  Suisse  Romande  (Geneva,  Switzer- 
land). 

RPhF:    Revue  philosophique  de  la  France  et  de  l'Etranger  (Paris). 

RSci:    Revue  scientifique  (Paris). 

Sci:     Science  (Garrison.  N.  Y.) 

SdYalePsLab:     Studies  from  the  Yale  Psychological  Laboratory. 

SmAbPdPs:  Sammlung  von  Abhandlungen  aus  dem  Gebiete  der  piida- 
gogischen  Psychologie  und  Physiologie   (Berlin). 

TrSc:    The  Training  School   (Yineland.  N.  J.). 

Unlowa&dPs:  University  of  Iowa  Studies  in  Psychology  (Iowa  City, 
Iowa ) . 

ZAngPs:  Zeitschrift  fur  angewandte  Psychologie  und  psychologische 
Sammelforschung  (Leipzig). 

ZBi:     Zeitschrift  fiir  Biologie  (Munich). 

ZEPd:     Zeitschrift  fiir  experimentelle  Padagogik  (Leipzig). 

ZPdPs:  Zeitschrift  fiir  piidagogische  Psychologie  und  experimentelle 
Padagogik  (Leipzig). 

ZPs:     Zeitschrift  fiir  Psychologie  (Leipzig). 

ZScGd:     Zeitschrift  fiir  Schulgesundheitspflege  (Hamburg). 


APPENDIX  III 

List   of   Materials 

Numerals  refer  ("  teat-numbers,    [terns  starred  refer  to  materials  thai 
arc  recommended,  bul  not  prescribed,  or  to  materials  for  the  conduct  of 

alternative  or  supplementary  tests. 

The  Materials  may  be  ordered  of  <'.  ll.  Stoelting  Company,  ::<»I7  <  iarroll 
Ave.,  Chicago,  Illinois,  who  will  quote  prices  on  application. 


I.     SPECIAL    APPLIANCES 


( 'ard  of  objects,  Binet's,  32 
<  lounter,  mechanical,  3G* 
Demoor  suggestion  blocks,  40* 
Kymograph  drum  and  stand,  42,  43 
.Memory  apparatus,  Jastrow's,  38* 
Pendulum,  seconds',  38* 
Pictorial  completion  test.  Healy's, 

48* 
Pictures     (lithographs),    Hindoos, 

.".1  :  Australians,  32;   Disputed 


case,     32;     Washington     and 
Sally.   32*;    Orphan's   Prayer, 

:\-2-  ;   card   of    13   colored.   38 

Prism*  20-D.,  ::•;* 
Seconds  clock,  33*,  34  '.  35  .  48 
Suggestion  blocks,  set  of  22,  40 
Warmth   illusory,  electrical   appa- 
ratus for,  44;  Guidi's  stove.   II 
Weights,  progressive,  set  of  15  for 
suggestion,  41 


II.     SPECIAL    PRINTED    FORMS 


Analogies,  3  sets  of  stimulus  cards 
and  recording  blank.  34A : 
three  forms  for  group  tests  of 
same.  34A 

Association,  100-word  list.  .':::;  sec 
Analogies,  Controlled  associa- 
tion  and   Kent  Rosanoff   tesl 

Completion  lest.  Ebbinghaus',  set 
of  4  forms  for,  48 

Computation  tests,  addition  book. 
35 ;  addition  problems, 
Schulze's  method,  35;  addition 
problems,  2-place  digits,  35; 
addition  problems,  20-place 
digits,  35;  multiplication  prob- 
lems, 35 

Controlled  association.  4  sets  of 
stimulus  cards,  20  each,  for 
part-whole,  genus-species  and 
opposites  (2  forms  i  tests.  34: 
four  forms  for  group  tests  of 
same,  34 

Fables,  set  of  8,  49 

Information  test.  51 


Ink-blots,   set    of   20,    15 

Kent-Rosanoff      association      test. 

33A;     frequency     tables     for 

same.  33A 
Memory    for   ideas,   3   test   sheets 

(Marble    statue.    Cicero    and 
.  Dutch  Homestead),  39 
.Memory    for    letter-squares,   set    of 

10  test-cards    and   blanks    for 

records,  38 
Memory  for  sentences,  '1  test  sheets 

of  i2i  sentences  each,  38 
Memory-span    for  digits,   set    of  4'J 

test-cards,  38 
Mirror-drawing.  G  pointed  star.  36; 

set  Of  6  patterns.  36 

Sentences  for  completion,   b; 

Substitution  test-strips  (Form  A), 
.",7  ;  coverboard  with  key  |  Form 
A),  37;  test  blanks  |  Form  B), 
.",7:  set  of  4  test-sheets  and 
cardboard  key   (Form  C),  37 

Vocabulary  tests,  2  forms.  50 

Word  building.  2  forms  for,  47 


327 


328  MANUAL   OF    MENTAL   AND    PHYSICAL   TESTS 

III.     GENERAL    APPLIANCES    AND    MATERIALS 


Alcohol,  denatured,  44 
Cardboard,  36,  37,  42,  43,  40 
Cigarette,  31 
Cloth,  soft  black,  40,  41 
Cross-section  paper,  ruled  in  mm., 

42 
Drawing  materials,  42,  43 
Gummed  letters  and  figures,  Sizes 

5  and  10,  38* 
Lamp,  alcohol,  44 


Lamps,  four  25-watt  tungsten,  44 
Matches,  44 
Metronome,  38 
Mirror,  30 
Stamp,  2-cent,  31 

Stop-watch,     preferably     split-sec- 
ond, 32-39,  44-48 
Supports,  36 
Thumb-tacks,  36 


INDEX    mi     \  \  \ii.s 


Etonian  numerals  refer  i<>  lesl  uuinbers,   Italicized   uuiuerals  i<>  pap 
numbers. 


Aall,  A.f  39 

Abbott,  Edwiua  E.,  38 

Ibelson,  A.  i:..  34,  38,  10 

am.  <;..  36 

\ikins.  II.  A..  34,  35 

Allen,  1".  J.,  36 

Anderson.  E.  J.,  38,   17 

Angell,  J.  i:..  38 
Aral,  Tsuru,  ."."> 
Aschaffenburg,  518 
Ayers,  L.  1"..  50 

Baade,  W.,  32,  38 

Babbitt,  E.  II..  50 

Baginsky,  A..  32 

Balaban,  a..  ::;< 

Baldwin,  B.  T.,  .'57 

Bell,  .1.  •'..  589f,  13,  690 

Bellei,  :'..", 

Bentley,  M.,  38 

BergstrOm,  J.  A..  38 

Bernstein,  A..  38 

Berry,  C.  s..  690 

van  Biervliet,  J.,  38,  40 

Bigham,  .1..  38 

Binet,  A..  31,  32,  ::.'•>.  38,  •".'.'.  11,    i- 

i::.  15,  i«;.  18,  •".<> 
Bingham,  W.  v..  158 
Bischoff,  E.,  :;•". 
Bogdanoff,  T.,  38 
Bolton,  F.  K..  I" 
Bolton,  T.  L.,  38 
Bonser.  F.  G.,  34,  19 
Boring,  E.  <;..  32 
Borst,  Marie,  32 
Bourdon,  B.,  38 
Bovet,  P.,  33A 
Boyd,  W.,  50 
Brand,  J.  E.,  13 
Breukink,  II..  32 
Brings.  T.  II..  34.  34A 
Brown,  W..  35,  38,  48 


Brugnians,  U.,  38,  ::•'.  17.  is 

Bryant,  Sophie,  .".1.  33A 

Burgerstein,  I...  33 

Burnham,  W.  II..  38 

Burris,  \v.  1'..  •"."• 

Burt,  <'..  ::::.  ::::.\.  34,  34A,  ::•"..  :■>• 

38,  i';.  i^ 
Bush,  a.  i»..  :■" 

( 'alfee,  Marguerite,  36 
Calkins,  Mary  \V..  :'.:'..  38 
Carpenter,  l>.  i\.  34,  ::7.  38 
Cattell,  .1.  M.,  .•:.•:.  33A 
Chambers,  W.  <;..  ::t.  35,  38 
<  !harpentier,  a..  4<> 
Childs,  II.  <;..  is.  19,  :><>.  690 
Chojecki,  a..  12,  u 
Claparede,  E.,  32,  I" 
Claviere,  J.,  W 
Cohn,  J.,  31,  32,  38,  18 
Courtis,  s.  A..  ::■". 

Dallenbach,  K..  ::■_' 

I  >aniel,  I" 

Dauber,  J..  :;•_' 

Dearborn,  <;.  V.  .v.  I.". 

I  »earborn,  w.  v..  36,  37 

hell.  .1.  A..  ::'.' 

I  >emoor,  i<i 

i  tescoeudres,  Alice,  -".1 

Dieffenbacher,  J.,  31,  •■;•-'.  38,  18 

Doll,  E.  A.,  i" 

I  >onovan,  M.  E.,  •"••"• 

I  >owney,  June  E.,  36 

Dresslar,  F.  B.,  1" 

Duprce,  B.,  ::•-! 

Eastman,  F.  C,  33A 

Ebert,  r  .  38 

Ebblnghaus,  E.,  35,  38,  619,  640,  18 

Elsenhans,  T.,  ix 

Ephrussi,  P  .  38 


329 


;:;n 


MANUAL    <»K    MENTAL    AND    PHYSICAL   TESTS 


Finzi,  J..  38 

Fischer,  Charlotte,  34,  37,  4<i 

Flournoy,  Th.,  :«.  40 

Fourche,  J.  A.,  40 

Fox,  w.  s..  :;.-, 

Franken,  A..  32,  51 

Frankl,  E..  38 

Fraser,  D.  K.,  48 

Friedrich,  J.,  35 

Fuehs,  II..  38 

Galton,  V..  38 
Gamble,  Eleanor,  38 
(Inland.  II.  B..  :;--! 
Gheorgov,  I.,  50 
Gilbert.  J.  A.,  40 
Giroud,  A.,  41.  42 
Goddard,  II.  H.,  689f 
Goett,  T.,  33A 
Gray,  C.  T.,  37 
Gross,  II.,  32 
Guidi,  G.,  41 

Hajigeniniiller.  A..  38 

Hall,  G.  S..  HI', 

Hawkins.  C.  J.,  38 

Healy,  W.,  48 

Heck.  W.  H..  :;:. 

1  legge,  T..  32 

Heilig,  M.  R.,  50 

Heiiuli.  it..  ::^ 

Henderson,  E.  N",  :'>'•> 

Heninon,  V..  38 

Henri.  V..  31,  36,  38,  39,  4:;.  4<;.  4s 

Hermans.  (;..  38,  :('.•.  47.   18 

Hill.  D.  S..  36 

Hollingworth,  H.  L.,  34.  35,  4(J 

Holmes.  Marion.  .".."• 

[Iubbell,  Elizabeth.  35 

Huey,  E.  P..  690 

Itschner,  II..  38 

Jacobs,  J..  38 
Jaffa,  S.,  32 
Jastrow,  J..  33,  500 
Johnson,  G.  E..  38 
Jones,  E..  :;4.  35 
Jones,  Grace  M.,  43 
. I, Hies.  W.  F.,  38 
.lost.  A.,  38 
judd,  C.  EL,  36 
Jung,  O.  G.,  33A 

Kakise.  H.,  33 A 
Katzen-Ellenbogen,  E.,  35 


Keller.  P..  ::."", 
Kelley,  T.  L.,  33A 
Kemsies,  E..  35,  38 
Kent,  Grace,  33A 
Kirkpatrick,  E.  A..  38,  I."..  :.<> 
Kline,  L.  W.,  :\~ 
Kolmky.  Emma,  .".7,  38 
Kohs.  s.  ('..  689f 
Kraepelin,  E..  )<>'■>.  35.  38,  48 
Krueger,  F..  :'."».  38,  48 
Kuhlmann,  P..  38,  689f 

Lapie,  I'..  38 

Paprade,  A..  .'{»'> 

Larguier  rtes  Bancels,  J.,  38 

L»s.er.  II.,  ■'•'> 

Lay.  W.  A.,  38 

LeClere,  A..  31 

Levy-Suhl,  M..  :;:;.\ 

Ley.  33A 

Lipmann,  O.,  32,  48 

Lobsien,  M.,  •'>.->.  38,  I* 

Lochte,  36 

Loomis,  H.  N.,  4<> 

Lough,  J.  E..  37 

Manchester,  Genevieve,  33 

Martin.  Gladys,  :,..~» 

Martin.  Lillien.  4o 

Masseloii.  R..  46 

Manrer.  L..  32 

McDougall,  W..  :'.s 

Menzerath,  33A 

Meumann,  E..  33A,  ::4.  35.  38,  I' 

Meyer.  M.,  48 

Michotte.  A..  39 

Monroe,  W.,  ::i 

Moore.  P.  <'..  :::!.  33A.  34.  34A, 

36,  38,  18 
Miiller.  <i.  E..  38,  40 
Munn,  Abbie  F.,  .">T 
Munsterberg,  1 1..  32.  38 

N'etolitzky.  A..  35 

Xetschajeft'.  A..  38 
Xevers.  Cordelia.  :;:•; 
Xorsworthy.  Naomi,  .".4.  38 

Oehru,  A..  35 
Offner,  M.,  :'.•"'-.  38 
Ogdeu,  R.  M..  39 

<  >k;ii»e.  t.,  602,  inn,  in: 
Ordahl.  Louise. :;."">.  36 
Otis.  Margaret.  33A 

Pearce,  II.  J..  589f 
Peterson.  H.  A.,  .:'.' 


INDEX    hi      S'AMES 


:;:;i 


Phillipe,  .1..   in 

Pilzecker,  a..  38 

de  Placzek,  32 

Pohlmann,  a.,  .".v 

Portych,  T.,  39 

Powelson,  Inez,  590 

Pyle,  W.  H..  33,  34,  37,  38,  39,  KS,  IT 

Quantz,  .1.  <>..  38 

Ransy,  Ci  '■'•'■' 
Reinhold,  l'..  33A 
Reis,  J.,  35 
Reuther,  i 
Rice,  .1.  l'..  40 
Ries,  G 
Ritter, »'..  38 
Robinson,  L.  a..  .".."' 
Roels,  F.,  33A 
Rosanoff,  A.  J.,  33A 
Rosanoff,  [sabel,  33A 
Rowe,  E.  c,  36 
Rusk,  R.  R.,  33A,  34 

Baling,  Gertrud,  33  \ 
de  Sanctis,  s..  690 
Schranun,  F.,  39 
Schulze,  R.,  35 
Schultz,  <;..  32 
Schumann,  F.,  38,  W 
Schuyten,  M.  »'..  38 
Schwegler,  R.  A..  689) 
Scott,  w.  i>..  590,  i  i 
Scripture,  E.  w..  K),  1 1 
Seashore,  C.  B.,  10,  1 1 
Segal,  J.,  38 

Sharp,  Stella,  31,  38,  39,  i:..  Mi 
Shaw,  J.  <\.  :;'•» 
Simon,  'I'..  50 

Simpson.  I'».  K..  34,  35,  38.  •"•'•'.   Is 
Sleight,  W.  G.,  38 
Small,  M.  II..  44 
Smedley,  F.,  38 
Smith.  Laura  I...  -"-i 
Smith.  VV.  <;.,  38 
Sommer,  \&0 
Spearman,  C,  35,  38,  18 
Specht,  w..  35 

Squire,  Carrie  R..  31,  ::i.  ::7.  38,  Ml 
17.  48,   I '.i 


Starch    I '    ::"•.  36,  37.  38 
Stern,  i   lain.  '.'.- 

Stern,  VV.,  32,  590 
Strack,  M  ,   '•''■ 
Stratton,  <;.  M:,  ::'■- 
StroDg,  E.  K..  Jr.,  33A,  58V) 
Swift,  E.  •!..  I'-' 
Sybel,  a.  \  .  38 

ranner,  Amy.  33 

Tel  iatnik,  ::.~i 

Terman,  L.  W..  39,    17,    18,    19,  50, 

U89f 
Thorndike,  E.  I. .  34 
Titchener,  B.  B 
Town,  Clara  II..  50,  689) 
L'oulouse,  •'<  10 

S'ogt,  i:..  35 
Vos,  II.  B.,  39 

Wallin,  .1.  E.  VV.,  33,  39,  690 

Washburn,  Margarel  F  .  590 

Watt,  11.  J.,  34 

Weber,  II..  36 

Wegener,  11..  36 

Weidensall,  Jean,  ::i.  36,  37,  Mi 

Wells.  F.  I...  33A,  34,  34A,  35,  37 

Wertheimer,  M..  i^ 

Wessely,  R..  38 

Whipple.    (I.    M.. 

17.  663,  50.  51 
Whipple,  Mrs.  •;.  M..  ■•< 
Wiersma,  B.,  18 
Wigmore,  J.  n..  32 
Which,  W.  II..  35,  38.  ! 
Winteler,  J.,  33A,  3  I 
Wlssler,  C,  38.  39 

Wolfe.  11.  K..    in 

W Iworth,    R.    s..   ::: 

35,  37 
WooUey,  Helen  T.,  34, 
Wreschner,  A.,  32,  33A 
Wyatt,   s..  34,  34A,  ::." 
is.  49 


602.  607,  <;/;. 


!i.  16.  68U 


A.    3 

37,    K 

38. 


I.    34A. 


Mi,    IT 


v.  oakum,  < '.  s. 


Ziehen.  T.,  33A 


38 


INDEX  <>I    si  li.ll 


For  authors  quoted,  sue  index  of  Names;  Cor  apparatus,  Bee  List  of 
Materials;   for  tables  and  figures,  see  Indexes  following  Table  of  <'.,n 

tents. 


Abnormal  children,  see  1  ►elinquents 
and  Feeble-minded 

Accuracy,    relation    of,    i"    speed, 
see  Speed 

Addition,  see  Computation 

^.ge,  effect  of,  on  description,  378 
f . ;  cm  report.  399  f. ;  on  uncoil 
trolled  association,  413;  on 
Kent,  Rosanoff  test.  426-430; 
on  part-whole  test,  442;  on 
genus-species  test,  441;  on  op- 
posites test.  450;  on  analogies 
test,  158  f . ;  on  substitution, 
506;  on  immediate  memory, 
541-545;  on  logical  memory, 
578  f. ;  on  size-weight  illusion. 
593  i'. :  on  progressive-weight 
test.  601  :  on  progressive  line 
test,  606  f. ;  on  directive  sug- 
gestion, 611  f . ;  on  warmth 
illusion.  f,17  ;  on  ink-blot  test. 
62 1  :  >>n  sentence  completion. 
•  ;:;i ;  on  Invention  of  stories, 
636  f. ;  on  word-building,  645 ; 
on  Interpretation  of  tallies. 
669  f. 

Analogies,  155- i'><>.  662. 

Apprehension,  range  of,  383. 

Arithmetical  tests,  see  Computa- 
tion and  Courtis  tests 

Association,  tests  of,  409-485;  un- 
controlled (continuous  meth- 
ods), 410-419;  uncontrolled 
i  discrete  method  »,  1 19  137  ; 
controlled  (logical  relations), 
437-455;  analogies,  455-460; 
cont  rolled  I  computat  Ion  1 .  460 
485 ;  see  [nk-blots. 

AUSSage  test,  see  Report 

Ayres'  spelling  vocabulai'y,  682 

Backward  alphabet  test,  15 1 
Rackward    children,    see    Feeble- 
minded   and    General    Intelli 
gence 


Binet-Simon  tests,  381,  571  f.,    >84 
689  f. 

•  affein,  effect  of,  on  computation 

474 
(  anl  of  ol-jects    I'.inel  -.  :>s:j'X: 
(  ic-ro  test,  see  Logical  memory 

•  'lass  standing,  sec  General  Intelli 

gence 
Completion  test,  627,  640,  649-666 
i  imputation  tests,  -pin-  is," 
Constant-increment  test,  465-468 
Contradictory-suggestion   test,    608 

ff. 
Correlations,  with  part-whole  test, 
Hi';  with  opposites  test,  r>:: ; 
with  computation  test.  ITU  f.  ; 
with  mirror-drawing,  196  f. ; 
with  immediate  memory,  565 
f.  ;  with  logical  memory,  58  1  . 
with  progressive-weight  test, 
602;  with  progressive-line  test, 
mi? ;  with  warmth-illusion, 
618;  with  invention  of  stories. 
637;  with  development  of 
i hemes.  639;  with  word-build- 
ing, 648;  with  completion  test. 
663  f.  :  with  interpretation  of 
fables,  672. 
Courtis  tests,  462,  181 
<  'riminals,  see  I  >elinquents 

1  i.i'eci  ive  children,  see  Delinquents, 
Feeble-minded 

Definition  test,  see  Vocabulary  test 
and  Information  test 

Delinquents,  performance  of,  in 
opposites  test,  451 ;  in  mirror 
drawing,  494  ff.;  in  substitu- 
tion, .">14  f.  :  in  sentence  com- 
pletion,    634 ;     in     completion 

lest.  662  f. 

I  Cental  treatment,  effect  of,  on  sni> 
si  inn  Ion,  514;  on  memory  for 
digits,  :.f.:: 


333 


:::!< 


MANUAL    OF     MENTAL    AND    PHYSICAL    TESTS 


I  >.•  Sanctis'  tests,  689  £ 

I  ascription  test,  370-382 

Digit-symbol  test,  sec  Substitution 

Directive  suggestion,  610  it. 

Distraction,  effect  of,  on  computa- 
tion, 475;  on  immediate  mem- 
ory, 559 

Division,  see  Computation 

Dutch  Homestead  test,  sec  Logical 
memory 

Ebbinghaus  test,  see  Completion 
test 

Environment,  influence  of  on  lists 
of  associations,  41S 

Epileptics,  performance  of,  in  un- 
controlled association.  413  f.  ; 
in  letter-span  test.  .>04  :  in 
logical  memory.  583  f. 

Fables,  see  Interpretation  of  fables 

Fatigue,  effect  of,  on  opposites  test, 
4.~>2  ;  on  computation,  47.1-482  : 
on  immediate  memory,  552 ;  on 
logical  memory,  581  f. :  on  com- 
pletion test,  059  f. 

Feeble-minded,  performance  of,  in 
association  test,  429  f..  433  I  : 
in  part-whole  test,  442;  in 
genus-species  test,  444;  in  op- 
posites  test.  451;  in  immediate 
memory.  196  ft".,  with  size- 
weight  illusion.  594  f.  See 
Epileptics 

Eranken's  question-method,  687  f. 

Genei'al  intelligence,  relation  of,  to 
report,  100;  to  Kent-Rosanoff 
test,    4:;i     ft'.:    to    part-whole 

test.  442:  tO  opposites  test. 
450  f .  :  to  analogies  test.  459: 
to  computation,  471  ;  to  mirror- 
drawing.  494;  to  substitution. 
512  ft'. :  to  immediate  memory. 
560  ft-.;  to  logical  memory,  582 
f . ;  to  size-weight  illusion,  596 : 
to  completion  test,  661  f . :  to 
interpretation  of  fables.  670 
ft".  ;  to  vocal  Hilary.  680 

Genus-species  test.  442  ft*. 

<:  nidi's  method  for  suggesting 
warmth,  614  f. 

Ideational  type,  effect  of,  on  report. 

10.",;    on    immediate    memory. 

557  f. 
Illusion,  see  Suggestion 
Imagination,  tests  of,  t',19-07''. 


immediate  memory,  see  Memory 

Individual  differences,  in  descrip- 
tion, .'h'.i  f.  ;  in  giving  analo- 
gies, 459  f . ;  in  computation. 
169;  in  work-curve,  470  f . ;  in 
mirror-drawing,  490  f. ;  in  di- 
rective suggestion,  611 ;  in  ink- 
blot test,  025 ;  in  word-build- 
ing, 040;  in  completion  test. 
059  ;  in  vocabulary,  079  f. 

Information  test.  083-088 

Ink-blots,  020-020,  630 

Insane,  fidelity  of  report  in,  400 ; 
free  association  in,  434 ;  com- 
putation in,  474 

instructions,  effect  of,  on  Kent- 
Rosanoff  test,  434  ff. 

Intelligence,  see  General  Intelli- 
gence 

Interpretation,  of  fables,  000-073; 
of  poetry,  072 ;  of  pictures. 
•573 

Invention,  see  Imagination  and 
Stories,  invention  of 

Kent-Rosanoff  method,  see  Asso- 
ciation uncontrolled  (discrete 
method ) 

Learning,  tests  of,  409  f..  485-510 
Letter  squares,  method  of,  528  ff. 
Linguistic  invention,  626-649 
Lipmann-Wertheimer  test.  664  f. 
Logical  memory.  571-587 

Marble     Statue     test,      sec      Logical 

memory 

Masselon  method,  see  Sentence  for 
niation 

.Material-weight  illusion.  .V.»7 

Memory,  tests  of,  383,  409  t.  516- 
587 :  for  serial  impressions 
i  rote  memory),  516-570 ;  meth- 
ods and  material  classified, 
■317-521;  for  digits.  521-528; 
for  letter  squares,  528  ff. ;  for 
words.  530-534,  554  f . ;  for  sen- 
tences. 535  f.,  586;  for  pictures 
of  objects.  536  f.  :  for  ideas, 
see  Logical  memory 

Mental  ability,  see  General  intelli- 
gence 

Mental  work,  see  Work  curve 

Meumann's  test,  see  Memory  for 
words  and  Sentence  formation 

Mirror-drawing,  485-499 

Mirror-writing,  497  f. 

Missing-digit  test.  482 


108  f. :  for  mirror-drawing 
189  f. :  tor  substitution,  504  ff. 
for  Immediate  memory,  531 
541  :   Cor  Logical    memory,  57 


INDEX    <'l     81  BJE(    l.-  335 

Multiplication,  see  Computation  506;   in   ink-Mot    test,  025;    In 

Musical  ability,  639  word-building,  045 

Range  of  Information,   see    infor 

•   ,    ,-.v  mation  test 

segro,  see  Racial  difference*  Pliability,    coefficient    of,    lu    op 

Norms,     for    Kent-Ron B     cat  u^  .(is,     ,.._, .  m  anal 

gories.  i2o  f;  for  free  associa  t(.s,     ,-,,.  m  computatlou  test< 

Hon  times     125   f.;   for   pari  ,-,  ,.  .  m  mimp|.  (ll,iuill..  ,.„•. 

wno3e    te8t;     '      :    'or    genui  m  iimm„li:lt(,  memory.  559;  in 

species    test    443    I.:    for   op  liiuir;l|  memory   -VJ:ill  „„,.„ 

Posites  test,  148  f.;  for  analo  ,.„,.  of  s](...i(i;    ,...-.  m  „,„,, 

T.T'  ,''."    ':.  t'u':.:::"."l:'!,.i'.'!::::  building,  647  f.;  In  completion 

test,  ti<;:; ;  in  [nterpretal  Ion  of 
fables,  672 
Ueport,  tesl  of,  383-408 
Resistance-wire   method,    for    su.' 

f  ;    for    size-weight    Illusion  gesting  warmth,  013  f. 

d93  f.;  for  progressive-weight       Rest-Pauses.  see  Work  curve 

est,  000   f.;_  for   progressive       Ries' association  test.  153  f. 

line   test.  60o   l. :   for   illusion 

of    warmth     017;    for    word-      S(.hu(>|         d      n.1;lti(i]|   of    „, 

bulldtag,  044  f. ;  for  completion  ites  t(.>(     ,-„  .  ,„  ,.„,     util. 

test  0o6  f;  for  interpretation  ^        {{.u  f      „,  inl<  ,,,,,,    „._, 

of  fables,  609;  for  vocabulary.  ,,_,,.    „,    sentence    completion. 

'"  63  i;t"  range  of  information. 

684  f.    See  Genera]  Intelligence 
Opposites  test,  145-453  Sense-department,  effect  of,  on  Im- 

mediate   menu >ry.    555    IV.  :    mi 

,,       ,   .        ....  ,.         ,.  logical  memory,  580 

Paralytics,    In  clnv    <•      reporl  in.             ,               ..          ,'•            .,         ,      . 

;  Sentence      lorination.       Masselon  s 

4«0;  see  insane  method.    627-630;    Meumanns 

Part-whole  test  438-442  .....„.„,,    ,...,,   ff      Bmt>8   ,„,.,,,. 

Perseveration  42i,  43o^53S ,  o0<  ,,,,     f       B^Vs     lii(.t)lM(| 

Physical  condition,  effect  of,  on  mi               (sentence  completion),  032  ff. 

nici hiitc  memorv.  553  ,.,...                ■     ,        •   .•       o-o 

,..,.,           ,  ,.    • -  Sex-differences,  bn  description,  3 <8: 

'ic oriiil  c«»ni|i CtKni  test,  bGo  □    « 

,,.   ,                .     ' _             ,,  .                    in     retort.    398    t.  :    in    nm-oii 

Picture  tests,  393-391  :  see  Descrip  .     ,,    ,             .   ,•          ,,.,      ,,- 

,,         ,    .,  ti-diicd    association,    U3,     M-. 

timi.   Report.   .Mmnorv  , , . ,  ,.  ... 

,,.  .  .     ......      t.       .....  «  H8      in    discrete    association 

Pictures,  test  <>t  title-  for,  381  t.  ,,  ...  .     ,    ,    , 

,,  ,.,.    ,     ..  ,,  .  test.  430  t. :  in  part-whole  test. 

Practise,  <•  e<-t  <»t.  mi   report,    n.  '     . 

,  ,.  .  ,.  ....  U2 :  in  genus-species  test,  II'. 

f . ;   on    free  associations,    l-.l  :  .,      ,     '     ,-,,  , 

.     ,..,  in  opposites  test,   l-i"  :  m  anal" 

on  opposites  test,  152;  mi  com-  •  ,     ....     .  ,   ,. 

,  '!        ._  k  ..     .,..,  .  Kies  test,  to9;  In  compulation. 

putat  ion.      i<»     ..    182     <»n   inir  .,,     .         .  .         .'      ,,,,   .. 

; , ;,..,     ,,,,  ,,,,.  .,,K  109;  in  mirror-drawhig,  191  f . ; 

in  substitution,  500;  in  imme 
diate     memory,     5  *•">  550 ;     In 

logical    memory,  579;   in   size 
cal    memory,   580   t. :   mi    -a-/.r  .  .         ...  •   _ 

...    .,,  •  .         -,, .  weight       i    usion.       595;       m 
weight    i  lusidii.   590;   on   pro-  ,,   .,.  ,.,_ 

.   ,.     ,     ,      ,.,,,  uarinth-i llusion.    617;    in    sen 

gressive-weighl    test,    mm      <>n  ,  ,.       ■  . 

.    .       ,     ,     ,_n  tence  completion,  634 ;  hi  word 

completion  test,  659  building.    645;    in    completion 


ror-drawing,  491- 194;  on  sub 
stitution,  508-512;  on  imme 
diate  memory,  550  ff.;  on  logi 


Pr< city,  see  General  batelligenci 

Profile  method  of  Rossolimo,  689 
Progressive-Une  test,  602-008 
Progressive  weight  test,  598  601 


test,    058    f. :    in    vocabulary, 
680 :   in  range  of  Information 
685 
Size-weight  illusion,  590-598 
Social    statn>.    relation    of,    t<>    re 
Racial  differences,  in  controlled  as  port,  100 


sociation,  152;  in  substitution,       span  tests,  see  Meniorj 

500  ff. ;  in  Immediate  memory,       Specht's  test,  see  Computation 


;:;<»; 


MANUAL    OF    MENTAL    AND    PHYSICAL    TESTS 


Speed,  relation  of,  ti»  accuracy   in 
computation,   47;; :    in    mirror- 
drawing,  41M) 
Star-test,  sw  Mirror-drawing 
Stories,  invention  of,  634-638 
Substitution  test,  499-516 
Subtraction,  sec  Computation 
Suggestibility,  tests  of,  588-618 
Suggestion,    by    questions,    385    C, 
391,  399,  102  f. ;  of  line-lengths, 
608-612  ;  by  illusion  of  warmth, 
612-618;  sec  Suggestibility 
Suggestion-blocks,   see   Size-weighl 

illusion 
Symbol-digit,  sec  Substitution 

Testimony,  see  Report 


Theme,    development    of,    638    f. ; 

choice  of,  639 
Transfer  of  practise,  in  computa 

tion,  471 :   in   mirror-drawing, 

I'.H  ft' .  :  in  substitution,  509- 
512 ;  in  immediate  memory. 
551  f\.  581;  in  logical  memory. 
637 
Types,  in  descriptions,  380  f . ;  in 
work-curves.  476  f. :  in  logical 
memory.  585  f . :  in  ink-blot 
test.  625  f. ;  in  sentence  com 
Itletion,  633  f . ;  in  invention  of 
stories.  637  f. 

Warmth,  suggestion  of,  612-618 
Word-building,  640-649 
Work-curve,  analysis  of,  475-482 

Vocabulary  test.  640,  674  683 


wnJBBaafflas.-ssB- 


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